Asylum has changed so much in terms of mechanics over the years you can never compare old and new players. Agree with what you and @Reapered said.
However, imagine like this. Those old players come back play now, warm up for a bit and go head to head with one of the newer gangs in old school conditions, how cartels where fought back than, these newer gangs will get slaughtered. But, if they where to fight on current Arma/Asylum conditions where you have Quilins, Zerg strats, Shit Orcas, etc.., old school players will get slaughtered. We've seen it happen quite a few times over the last couple years. Arma is essentially a completely different game compared to back then.