That is absolutely not true, at least as far as team powers are concerned - although team power is a terrible indicator of overall strength, I do feel the need to correct this. Perhaps at S4/G1, but at S2/S3, average team powers are closer to around 500-700K.
I said S4 to G1, and it is absolutely true. I've been stuck in S4 for months and I'm at the mission for G1.
Team power is not the absolute indicator of success, but it can be a useful factor when weighed against team composition.
The biggest problem is the amount of meta arena champs in those teams. One doesn't have to be a professional analyst to determine that those accounts are whales with the occasional lucky F2P/ low spender in there.
Sure there are F2P/low Spenders with multiple Duchess, Siphi, Hegemon, etc….but not at the frequency the S4 backlog reflects.
They need to drastically increase the tier limits to better reflect the power/champ distribution of the player base. It's an easy fix for a problem that's just going to get worse over time. That one change is all that is needed. No reason to break Tag with the shenanigans they did on Classic.
Either Plarium is just ignorant of the issue or it's their intention to try and open wallets by frustrating their player base. Either way, it's not good.