It is in a way - the cvar r_wolfparticles has been removed in legacy.
You can't get rid of explosion graphic effects but certain other effects that were toggled by r_wolfparticles can now be toggled with cg_visualEffects.
If you set cg_visualEffects to 0 you remove: black smoke coming from destroyed vehicles, debris flying around after an explosion happens, impact sparks when a bullet hits a solid object and airplanes doing bombing runs when a field ops calls in an airstrike!