If you unchecked everything in the dialog, it warned you that everything would be deleted off your Profile. Did this not happen?
The majority of interests you would've been linked to would not give you News Feed items (they're "voiceless" Pages).
The majority of interests you would've been linked to would not give you News Feed items (they're "voiceless" Pages).
I understand fully that most of my profile items aren't actually associated with pages, or may be pages that don't post. But even taking that into consideration, there were still likely a few dozen (popular shows and bands, for example that I am positive have a presence on Facebook) that likely would be posting to my feed. I estimate I only added back 1/4 of the interests I had before, and about 10 of those posted on my feed today. It's fine because I can just hide them and actually obtain the settings I want, but it was a bit of a process.