Sledgehammer in search of ...

Indeed, those 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans were the first to recommend that 1,500 milligrams of sodium should be the goal for about half the U.S. population (including children and most adults). This applied to “persons who are 51 and older and those of any age who are African American or have hypertension, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease.” While the 1,500- milligram sodium- restriction level was removed from the 2015 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations, the 2,300- milligram level remains. Finally, we begin to see a bit of nuance in the guidelines. What had previously felt like a sledgehammer in search of a fly to smash, now began to hint at what we in the field have known for decades: low salt only works for a very small subgroup of people.

--- I'm not sure I fully understand the part in bold. Does it say something like: What had previously seemed to be very dangerous (or what had previously scared us), now seems to confirm what we have know for decades ...