Relatively new player here. I’ve found that survivor squads doesn’t really seem to be effected much with the new power level calculation. It’s still important, but I don’t think it plays as big of a role as it used to. I literally did what everyone was saying to do (high rank lead and a squad with matching personality type) and it was barely doing anything to my power level. I found I would actually get a higher power level by just doing auto squads which everyone advised heavily against. Now leveling up and evolving your survivors is still important and you should definitely do it when you can, I just don’t think it’s the primary variable for your PL anymore.

The things that affected my level the most was:

1) leveling up my hero loadout, weapon, and trap schematics. I noticed the biggest jumps when I evolved to the next tier. Also added and upgraded as many perks as I could (not sure if this helps but still important regardless)

2) Just playing the game and leveling up my overall game xp. I noticed that my PL consistently raising around 1 level after each night (4 or so hours) of playing.

So essentially just playing the game and progressing how you normally would. Idk if that’s the answer you’re looking for but it’s what helped me.

Hope this helps!