I wouldn't say it is less competitive, but I think the bar is set lower now than it was before. Many long running series ended and with them the numbers they brought setting a new standard, looking at the conversation we had earlier. Back in 2011 when I started to follow TOCs because of Nisekoi we had série running for decades selling 400k+: Naruto, Bleach, Reborn, Gintama, Sket Dance, Bakuman, Beelzebub, Medaka Box, NuraMago, Kuroko. Not all of them sold 400k+, but you get the idea. Most of them are iconic, they wouldn't be cancelled even with bad rankings. New series had to fight against iconic mangas to get a chance.
Now what remains of this era is "just" One Piece, which nobody competes against anyway, and a bunch of young series that doesn't have the power that echelons had, you just have to be decently good to survive, while there you had to be great.