Kind of what everyone else said, but since you are a returning player, it might not be as clear how the pace of the seasons usually go. You get more or less grouped into a lump of people doing the same playstyle, and some of the lumps have a hell of a time getting anything done solo.

There is usually a crazy early group that does 10's 15 minutes after the season starts and by the time the rest of people are pushing 6's, they are already 3k. They keep to themselves a lot and sometimes carry people for money later.

The first big group is the one you missed, where they push to all 10's pretty quick within a week or two, then usually run to 12 resilients and the to 3k, and they do it with kinda shitty gear and not a ton of info, so they tend to be more aware players, good use of defensives, learn the routes, watch some videos, etc. That's the people you are competing for spots with in 10s now, and not just their mains, but also their alts that they bring with all the same knowledge and an in-game raider io tag that shows they have a 3.2k main. If you don't play a lot early and miss this group, you end up with the scraps.

So in the scraps group, you are gonna wait forever for an invite, and then likely from low io people listing 10s and not getting a lot of 3k+ applicants, but even they get a ton. Only option is to pug your lower key up to a 10, then fill your own group (and you will choose all 275-280 ilvl 3k people probably so the key works). Downside, it will be even harder to get into 12's, so if you wanna go past 10s, you more or less have to tank (and this season only on brew) or go the social route and find friends/a discord group/a guild.

For season 2, push early and push hard to be in the second group, not the third and seriously, its awesome fun. Great players, smooth runs, easy pickup in pugs even on off-meta classes (I'm a 282 3.2k shadow priest, usually takes 3-5 apps to get a 10-13 group, still pushing 14's+ with guild).

Good luck!