All I heard revolved around Royal-Davis. IIRC some talk about her dad shopping her around different schools once Cooke graduated, and nobody but TC bit. TC also got Kendall Braden from NDA as well. Speaking of NDA, Haney pales in comparison to the people Galloway has gotten, except Galloway knows how to do it without embarrassing himself and his program twice in the same season.
I think the separation robs you of good matchups between good teams. A young Fremont team scaring the heII out of VanSlooten and NDA in 2021, Whitmer beating NDA in 2016, that Rogers-CC matchup in 2018, I'm sure I'm forgetting some.
Also, TCC's district got severely altered. You are right that they essentially have a cakewalk to regional semis, but Bath, Bryan, and St. Marys' all got moved from that district, and they for sure would've made that a lot more competitive.