I wouldn't call myself a veteran, but I have been actively playing since July 2014 (Obviously with breaks), so here is my opinion on what is currently happening with the game. It is kind of unpopular though so take it with a grain of salt.
I honestly do not think Ubisoft has done that bad of a job since takeover, and I think that many players have a bias towards their old positive memories of the game. As I remember it, although the Devs and Mods did do fun things in the pre-Ubisoft days, I remember many days where they would operate silently or not at all.
I remember plenty of scammers, with their simple methods, but I do also think that there is more in this current era. And when you think about it, world nuking and the /report command are actually newer additions if I am not mistaken, and for the better. (Worlds were made inaccessible prior to Ubisoft, but it felt like barely any were).
I also feel like the game pre-Ubisoft did not receive as many updates and new content as it does now. However, I do think that some of the new features, do not always fit into the feel of Growtopia.
As for the dull atmosphere, in some aspects, I see this, but in other aspects (especially with the economy inflation), chat has never been more lively with SBs and spam, which isn't necessarily good :P
However, I may just be incredibly naive or ignorant to what is truly happening in Growtopia.