I mean ... no, it is not. If anything, it's even easier to be FTP now. You get tons of free resources for almost literally doing nothing.

Your mistake is assuming you need to actually participate in events/tournaments. You don't. Get the rewards you can for just doing what you normally do. Don't push yourself to try to do them all. Do the fusions, and otherwise just play the game.

You really shouldn't be facing Krakens in arena unless you are one and for everything else the PvP opponents never get buffed so you keep progressing. The last few free legendaries have been fantastic. 

yes, that is the option. And you are also right that there are more rewards now. Thing is, that when you can afford it, you can gain a lot of advantage versus players who can't afford it. If you do this event you can make UDK even better. Harder to fight for me in live arena, but often I need to because there are other champs I don't have which are even more awful.  And I can't buy the shards to get them. There are now quite a few champs who can  blow my team away in one move. 

In live arena I don't have a choice. And yes, the last fusions have been good, but besides the last one, those are not arena material

You really shouldn't be facing that many whales in live arena also. I definately get some but they will continue to float to the top and I will face less and less. 

yes, that is true, but I wonder whether there is some end-game left for me lol