[2021] Is it just me or the Ritual league mechanic gets progressively worse throughout the league?

In the first week , the league mechanic was actually rewarding. Then I felt like something changed and it started to be a bit off. Later it felt like it was not efficient to do it. Another week there was some change and they started usually offering at least 2c and higher tier essences. Nothing fun or particularly useful, but at least it paid the map mod cost and essences could be sold in bulks. I quit for 2 weeks, because the league mechanic was boring and unrewarding. I just dont enjoy max juicing maps spending most of my time micromanaging non-arpg content.

I just returned and the rituals give me literally nothing, garbage tier currency, low tier essences and few useless rares. We also tried a private league simulating gauntlet and at lvl 55+ we only get white items with couple blues and no real currency or something useful?

What happened? Is the league mechanic gradually rebalanced according to the few ppl juicing and playing it the normal way is supposed to be a waste of time?