Two points to consider - it is much easier to grow fast now because the payouts are better and ew players get all LL opened. Also, for a long while, the LBs were just storing gold via allies because they had max out. When new lands came in, their stats shot up very fast.
Most of my friends are inactive now. My way to make friends was clan hopping around KaW. I was just helping around. Now i wish to grow to be able to hop around like i used to because it is fun. Most of us still think that way. Nevertheless, stats now are some kind of barrier eg. A 40mcs stats being friends with a 1mcs? Not that common