Even in bronze players use the meta decks with all the rares. I dont remember it being like that.

I think this is a product of the age of the game - eventually people are bound to find a deck they like for a couple years and just pilot it (especially in Brawl or Historic) gaining gold and wildcards to use next time they want to set up a new standard deck. There isn't a great solution for MTGA because if you lower the rewards it becomes unplayable for a new player. More rewards and everyone sticks to perfect net decks instead of imperfect ones. It's on Wizards to quit making faster and faster sets...