According to the article around 180000 left which is around 2.5% of the population of Hong Kong 7.2 million. There basically wasn’t that many people who emigrated to cause a shift in perception.
As many have suspected it was the issue of cost of living that caused the protest. Now with easy access to more affordable goods & services across the border, the problem mostly fixed itself. If you relied on outside media narratives convincing you otherwise, you would come to the wrong conclusion.
To quote Steve Jobs
People don’t know what they want until you show it to them.