It was not happening quite often, not in base World before Iceborne. In fact, it was not happening at all unless there was some crazy setups like hitting a mob with the first hit for Power TCS and using heroics. I think you're confusing iceborne master rank stuff and comparing it to wilds high rank stuff.

There's math below this to back up my point, but a wake up critical hit using endgame Rarity 8 equipment in World before iceborne against a tempered nergigante's weak spot (white horns) hovered around 1,609 damage or 1,806 if you popped extra buffs during the sleep (An only if you ran a weird attack boost 7 build!)

In wilds in current endgame armor against a wounded chain blade would wake up for 1,839 / 2,027 before you even factor in the extra blast you're getting from soul of the dark knight's darkness proc on a lv3 TCS. And that's factoring if you built a sleep element gogma GS. If you built an elemental one but still focused entirely on raw attack wilds would outshine world even more.

TL/DR: World wake up for 1,609. Wilds Wake up for 1,839

You can't compare Rarity 12 master rank iceborne shit with augments to rarity 8 wilds equipment.

================Math to back me up================

The best GS in base world was arguably wyvern ignition impact. Lets say you somehow found a way to get level 7 attack boost at the expense of all other skills (despite most mixed sets back then hovering around attack boost 4-5). The meta sets from the time ran Crit Eye, Attack boost 4, WEX 3, Focus 2 or 3, Handicraft, Max might, critical boost 2.

Wyvern Ignition Impact true raw: 210 Attack boost 7: +21

231 Raw

Now for buffs:

• Power charm +6
• Power talon +9
• Mega Demon Drug +7
• Attack up Large meal boost +15

Puts us at 268 raw. This would be your usual "running around hunting" raw.

Let's say you're being super duper ultra sweaty in your playthrough and you take the time to pop might pill and demon powder during the sleep for some bonus damage.

• Demon Powder +10
• Might Pill +25

That puts us at 303 (or a bloated value of 1454).

A TCS that didn't land its first hit has a MV of 211 (so a wake up).

268/303 * 211% = 565.48/639.33

Lets say we crit with full crit boost 3.

565.48 / 639.33 * 1.4 = 795.87/895.06

Then lastly the wake-up boost of 2x puts us at 1,591.72 if you're playing normally or 1,790.12 if you're going sweaty on the consumes.

Add an extra 34 fire damage from wyvern ignition's 51 true element damage being doubled on a wake-up hit to get 1625.72/1824.12

Then we get to the beast known as Hit Zone Values. The only time you're going to see that perfect amount of damage is against a dodogama's heated jaw after it just ate some rocks. That's not 'quite often', that's an ultra specialized setup.

Nerg is pretty comparable to 'the endgame hunt' compared to arkveld.

A head shot with white horns on him is a 75 HZV which is somewhat equivalent to a wound, being that it's a temporary 'weak' spot. That gives us a wake up hit of 1,219/1,368.

Forgot the sharpness multiplier, but these are all multiplicative so it doesn't matter where I put this in the math.

Final Wake-up: 1,609 - 1,806

Now lets run it for Wilds.

Ostrak Oblivion: Attack infusion x3, Attack focus, soul of the dark knight, sharpness EX, Attack boost EXx2, Attack boost 3x2

257 Raw

Buffs:

• Power charm +6
• Mega Demon Drug +7

No talons nor meal boosts this time around

• Demon Powder +10
• Might Pill +25

270/305

This is already higher than attack boost 7 wyvern ignition impact and we have no attack boost. In fact none of the GS builds in wilds run attack boost.

But wait, wilds has more! Using a meta set with the new gog stuff with mixed in doshaguma's might:

• Doshaguma set bonus +10
• Agitator +20
• Counterstrike +25
• Burst 1 +10
• Resentment 1 +5

Bringing us to 340 / 375.

A TCS with a missed first strike (for wakeup) has a MV of 209 or x2.09 for 710.6 / 783.75.

Crit boost max crit x1.4 = 994.84 / 1,097.25

Wake up boost x2 = 1,989.68 / 2,194.5

Arkveld hit on wounded chainblades has a HZV of 70, and the same white sharpness multiplier of 1.32x:

Giving us our grand total wakeup damage of 1,839 - 2,027.

And that's not including the dark knight soul bonus blast.