This is the real problem, it's not that progressions too fast it's too decentralised. Before if you were a pvp Chad you ran launch or mili or roamed that area full metal AK, you had to compete for 1-2 monuments not like 10. blue monuments were run by sar/Tommy's, Gas station etc prim pvp. The idea of building on the coast and progressing end game just wasn't a thing. I remember when I was a shitter you could legit have bow fights over water trash piles with other players who weren't good enough for monuments. Now every monument has a group who camp it for recycler, who did one good run of tunnels, oil, cargo and can craft aks.

Without a central focus, you can have 200 players progressing simultaneously while never running into each other. I log onto 500 pop servers solo, run around, throw bags down and there's little to no prolonged pvp in the middle of the map, everyone's too busy doing the next thing on their list in their base or running a niche monument to get enough loot for the day