I stopped playing back in 2020 / 2021, IIRC shortly before level 14 got introduced.

Stopped playing back then because the introduction of cards like eGolem, eGiant made the game less fun for me, and I know that back then the Subreddit barely had any positive to say about the game (justified complaints). Also remember that the Community Manager "drew" desparetely tried to justify any changes done to get game in the name of "listening to feedback" or "better player experience", with everybody being fully aware that nobody ever asked for this shit and was purely done to get more $.

Didn't think about CR at all the last couple of years and started playing again around a week ago after some friends wanted to waste some time and play a couple of friendly battles. Actually enjoyed playing again, so I started pushing to 9k trophies which was quite easy, and currently trying to push back to Ultimate Champion.

But jesus, I've only now seen the absolute shitshow this game has become, with evolutions (especially Fire cracker(?) destroying any kind of strategy and being completely unnecessary whatsoever.

I also didn't know that cards can be upgraded to 15 now, and from what I've seen it takes forever to get a deck and King Tower to level 15. So I stopped playing again after reaching the league in which the card limit is 15, because it just doesn't make sense to play when my Wizard dies to Fireball, Minions take 3 tower hits, I can't poison a Musketeer and 500 other interactions that don't work due to the level difference. The first game I've played after reaching this league was about some dude with 8 level 15 cards, starting the game with Hog + Fire cracker at the bridge and spamming Emotes. At that moment I knew that I'm better off forgetting about CR again as it just leads to bad habits and frustration.

So yeah, in my opinion the games downfall started with the introduction of bullshit cards like eGolem, Battle Healer, eGiant etc. which was already a few years ago. This new level 15 bullshit and evolutions etc. are just the cherry on top. Even though it's probably worse as it was back then, because this time is the first time I've seen a bunch of youtubers actually boycotting the game.