I think they're still trying to get a fair balance to the game, in the way i look at it, CA7 players will be something normal, CA8 will be barely fit to NT standarts and CA9+ will be really good players, and those will be really hard to get from now on, no matter how high is your academy level.
Last season, high PR players were an usual thing (i saw many PR6 players), it seems they re-balanced it again.