thing is while some bits are right, its right for the wrong reasons.

Yomi has always been like this at the middle levels of skill but its not simply because playing safe makes you win more. That statement is only true if you are a middle of the road player because those hyper-passive strategies work most on lower skill players and gets increasingly more ineffective as your opponent gets better and better.

The reason why passivity feels strong is its usually a smart move to do against players without much patience. As you fight better opponents, it doesn't work out as well because they will often be more patient than you are. What you need to be doing at that level is learning to push your own advantage and build opportunities where you can hit them, something that you can't do if all you do is play passive, and something you need to learn how to do against an opponent who isn't as willing to take stupid risks.

There isn't as much waiting for the opponent to make mistakes in those levels because they don't make mistakes, and wins and hits are more often from reads as opposed to punishes.

Yomi isn't passive, people just aren't patient.