a user in the content publishers role should see edit links on any page that has that role specified as an edit role.

Nothing has changed in this regard.

Content Administrators is a special role, you cannot delete this role, it has edit permissions no matter whether explicitly assigned for the role, ie you don't have to grant this role edit permissions.

Content Publishers is not a special role you could delete this role, it is like any normal role and must be specified in the page (or content instance) edit roles in order to grant edit links