With exactly 11 MP games under my belt since 2.0.1, that has not been my experience at all.
11 games is hardly much, i probably have at least 40 games since 2.0.1 behind me, as most games i play are played on fastest, and that's not even much, some in the WSC play 3-4 games
per day.
true, the first few games of 2.x series felt like you describe. but that was probably because many played with old meta ideas in mind. it shifted quickly.
and since game design is one of my life long passions, it actually isn't much of a mystery imho, at all, if i look at the mechanics and dynamics. many things have just become a lot more linear, even if new mechanics were introduced, that should counter those.
true, if playing with mixed players, casuals, who play on fast, and build up less minmaxy, mostly you can still encounter smaller wars.
additionally, i am known as a friendly player, who usually won't make offensive wars of total destruction, and likes to experiment around with new ideas, not that i do not sometimes participate however, but play mostly reactive. i am all up for a small skirmish, or a war around an area that is "disputed". an honest war for some sector of space. but i know, attacking someone will usually end in gore and never-ending fights until one dies, because usually if i am at war with a human, his playstyle is aggressive, and he comes for one thing only at me.
i try to be sportive, and not take a player out completely, however many players enjoy making other players leave, it's just how they tick.
i am also quite strong in countering because i constantly try defensive playstyles with extremely aggressive players, so yes, if you survive the first 50 years, and gain enough territory to lay back you can survive a war or two, maybe, by enforcing a status quo, but usually, if the enemy knows what he is doing, he will attack and steamroll, when the time is right.
You have to constantly manually watch his fleet strength, simply because it becomes a game of resource income, and starting your queues too late can be dangerous, which makes it easy to dictate the right time for war.
things like capturing stations to destroy energy income, using wormholes to your advantage, etc. can occasionally be very fun, so i am not saying, 2.x is just generally worse, it isn't.
Attackers that don't have the strength to take core worlds generally just scrape the border worlds and sit until WE climbs, and defenders accept Status Quo rather than waste time.
which is why non diplomatic races have a great affinity. swarms, exterminators, purifiers and assimilators lately (which i find a bit sad, since i liked the ambiguity of assimilators), only followed up by any kind of slaver, since all these races can create huge amounts of resources, claim systems faster and cheaper, and wage war without using the claims aswell. once you have a critical mass of ships, you can roll over another empire easy.
not that a fully upgraded bastion citadel cannot be useful, usually all the resources spent on it will usually leave you vulnerable to an enemy attack.
materialists usually can have a comeback in later games, but they need to survive to there, which is basicly only possible with luck. staying small just isnt an option in a game where reaching +1k mineral income is something normal for a swarm owning large enough space.
finally a lot of players have the habit of pressing surrender nowadays, which just insta-doubles the strength of those races. since most of them actually have to do little to nothing to keep revolts in check, and just purge away millions of people without a fuzz - with the occasional but inconsequential uprising of a planet.
(imho the surrender mechanic is broken)
i did at least expect occupying new planets to get harder for the "evil races", but actually, they are even better in that area. it makes it pretty predictable imho, who will win a match.
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I do agree what you say about the AI - but that is mostly since many things the AI does make no sense anymore, and a lot of finesse it had in the past seems to need an overhaul. AI is able to react to your ship builds, but usually does not have the right idea about economy, still spending too much and relying on its cheat income. Many evil things AI could do in 1.9.x series are also out of fashion, like building a claim post close to your space. you can see that AI even usually built colony central buildings on food tiles when 2.x arrived, that it could need a major overhaul in general.
As an invader, you presently cannot set your fleets to homebase at occupied starports
i saw 2.0.4 will introduce this finally. however if you ask me, the ability to build ships in an occupied station, before the war is even over, is a broken mechanic aswell. it yet again plays into why i say, offensive is too easy, and not really challenging enough, especially, an offensive buildup is better in defense, than a defensive one. i have no problems with repair, and still find, occupied stations should get a debuff, until the war is over.