Too Early For Me To Decide.
I'll need to digest this new patch and the direction Yoshi-Peezy is going to take with the game. From just scratching the surface, it looks like soloing guildleves around your level is hard, fighting mobs take longer (not more difficult, but more time consuming), but chopping wood hasn't really changed much, it seems.
It looks like I'll be chopping wood for a while until I get used to the new system in place. I see a lot of people crying foul, but let's grind it out a bit. See what they're really up to. It's too early to jump to conclusions.