sure, back then there werent B sets+6 or toi talismans or other end game items which you would need on new party, but there were times when BW tunic +0 cost 75kk and just recipe was 25kk, top parties had many epics back then as well, there is always circle of epics where top pts farm epics, they stop playing, they try to RMT them and they get banned, so its not really that big of a difference how many epics are now and how many were back then
when you were 68 lvl and you were fighting vs 74 lvl ppl, no matter they had same equip, you got stomped because of debuff landrate
to lvl up to 76 is much easier coz you need less xp? i can tell you that as fully active archer cp with decent gear, we were doing on TOP spot at that update 2.5kk xp per PRIME (which was 3-4h?), and that was considered imba prime back then for us, usually we were even losing % because the moment we joined side at 55 lvls and xped at start of loa, 70 lvl enemy CPs were jumping from karik bridge to gank us
if you think new cp had it easy ever on this server, then you are mistaken, there is no easy way how to join the big boiz
ps: just out of curiosity we went to DI party spot with few ppl, i think its reasonable strength for PARTY as its party spot, take sws, take bd, take wc with cov, some healer or pony, tank and 2-3 dds and i refuse to believe you are going to get wiped - sure, it wont be as good xp as before the fix, but thats kinda obvious if you farm solo few shot mobs while they should be farmed by party?