@pendragon no worries, the sarcasm was most advanced and easy to miss 
Iām not even sure if I count as an old or still newer player with ~9 months of playing timeā¦ maybe Iām a middle aged oneā¦ midlife crisis, anyone? 
Slightly more serious, one thing did just cross my mindā¦ as new features are being developed like notably challenge events and wars, they will then forever provide a bigger relative benefit to newer players, so in that sense there is an advantage to being new. The first players that started this game did not have the opportunity to get ascension items from challenge events, but players starting now will immediately have it available to them, as soon as theyāve achieved the necessary level of course and built up a team strong enough etc.
And the same even more so with wars as that is an even newer thing - you can argue that war loot isnāt much to write home about, but nonetheless itās some advantageā¦ some ascension items get reportedly dropped in war loot from time to time, though Iāve yet to see some myself but thatās besides the point.
Andā¦ same again for the VIP pass, for those who choose to pay for it, which can seriously speed up progress towards producing more resources quicker by upgrading mines and farms etc. faster, and getting some TC20s up and running, which would then give earlier access to getting more 4* and 5*. New players have this available now, older players havenāt had this available most of their time in the game.
Also actually I think it takes more and more time and resources the stronger you get, to grow even moreā¦ going from a 3* team to a 4* team takes so much less than going from a 4* team to a 5* team. And beyond, building depth with even more 5* takes all the more again. Which means that newer players (given similar game activity) will get stronger faster than an already established really strong player will build his strength even more. Over time anywayā¦ there sure can be some hiccups along the way when a particular ascension item wonāt come etc., the RNG will ensure it isnāt exactly the same for everyone.
On the other side there are things like the nerfed raid loot, sure. But Iām not sure there has been enough nerfing done to offset the benefit of the new things old players did not have originally.
So in my mind, given enough time a player who starts now can eventually arrive in the same arena with the best players. But it does take time and effort, which is only fair. Personally, I enjoy the journey heading somewhere in that general directionā¦ 
Just my 2 cents.