I am not aware that there was ever a tool to generate a pdf of all available footprints.
However, the question you link to had other requirements which are still fulfilled. For example, the footprint browser can be used to quickly navigate libraries and see a preview of how the footprints look like just as the person asked over there. And at least in nightly the footprint editor can be navigated with arrow keys plus enter to show the selected footprint (so one more key press but still no mouse required)
Plus every tool for assigning footprints to symbols has a preview for footprint selection as shown in How can i assign a footprint to a symbol?. And well the general workflow starts from the schematic so this is actually how most users will search for footprints.
The add footprint tool if pcbnew has a preview at least in current nightly (i seem to remember this was also the case in version 5). This would again fulfill the requirements of the person whose question you linked to.
I guess this happens if one links to a 10 year old question. Most of the info including the original premise is hopelessly outdated.