A friend of mine told me that his Rebbi discussed the 40 days at the Kossel inyan with R. Eliezer Pluchinski, zt”l, who said there is an inyan, and they even discussed specific details, such as making sure to have only ONE thing that you pray for, and that going before mincha and staying for maariv does NOT count for 2 separate days out of the 40.
He said that the Rabbi of his shul has publicly stated that he puts little stock into the media’s announcements of R. Eliyashiv’s opinions since they often get it wrong.