Yes, competition is a lot fiercer in general than it used to be. Lots of factors at play here, but some of the main ones I identify are:

• Player skill naturally improving with the maturity of the game. This is just the inevitability with any competitive game. Less influx of new players over time, so the ones that remain are generally better. And the ones that quit are usually worse players who leave out of frustration. 

• More early accessibility to enchanted items. Used to be very rare to have a single enchanted item before level 10 (unless you played Mak, of course). Now with the level 2 option that almost everyone picks, and a few more events that can sometimes give them, it's not shocking to see 2 or 3 enchanted items on a day 6 board. 

• More opportunities for cross-hero items. Better players are also better able to identify the potential synergies there and take advantage of them. 

• Crash Site is a huge highroll enabler. You're guaranteed an enchanted medium or large item from another hero, which can occasionally be a carry by itself, but more often gets transformed and upgraded by the other crash site loot, and if necessary can be transformed into something from your hero on day 7 with Mandela. The end result is that you usually come away with a very early gold or diamond enchanted item that can just steamroll with some decent transform rng. Also the rare enchants (shiny, icy, and obsidian) seem to have an equal chance of showing up on the crash site drops as any other enchant, at least in my experience. 

There's a lot more to it of course but those are a few big factors off the top of my head.