Competitivity is gone?

I miss the grinding the most, things became little too easy and meaninless with raids astronomical rewards and lack of competivity.

There's good stuff with the new update, but generally, I prefer the way it was before.

yeah, is gone, after the first round of battles against your rival doesn't matter wich mon you gonna use, i use whatever the game sugests, team predominance still matters.

Absolutely.
Gym raid- no skill, only spam attacks, and guarantee win if more than 5 ppl, regardless what Pokémons