I started playing apex in around season 9 or 10 I can't remember but I got 500 hours in the game I did play ranked a lot mainly because it had less cheaters.
The update is really good, I don't get beamed half way across the map people don't hunt you down although they don't see you. Everyone's aim is not crazy like it was before. And the players I soloed with say the same I would say a lot of Season 1 badges and players in Silver. The thing i notice more is people randomly stumble in to each other way more.
Their is way more people on mic then before and that is uncomfortable. Re-45 is energy and became useless and that is just sad. The Arena is removed and that is sad as well, it was quite fun before I uninstalled the game I basically played just Arena.
To be honest the game had way more fun game modes then now idk why they removed them because it had the players. You just couldn't play ranked.
The game has not changed in a way it's 90% more empty it's almost like they removed everything and it's a Unity project of someone to be honest a few guns basic movement some shields and stuff. Maybe a fortnite event or two.
A lot of things work different. The levels are weird and useless to me. Their is some armor upgrades that are interesting but haven't really seen the benefit of them. These aren't complaints it's just I see them but even using them or not I don't see any change. Or it's so minor it's just there for the levels. I have played so long I just don't see the benefits.
I like the addition of bot rounds. Because I have been playing other games the chat being locked to the 3 players makes it feel really lonely and dead compared to other games. That is more of a observation like in overwatch in quick play the global chat always has some messages but here it's dead.
I give it a 7/10 if I don't count the years the game has been online if i do a 4.5/10 because it didn't change at all. The anti cheat is the biggest update I can remember that isn't fixing the game. At least it's a good update not a useless gun change. It's still fun like before.
The Apex Subreddit counts this as a Hacking advice post so I can't post there sorry
Forgot to mention the Tonemap ( How the fire and flare looks too bright etc) You can adjust it is customisable.