Its definitely better for new players, much more casual friendly which is what makes it so popular and enjoyable. However i feel the system is less geared towards an interesting competitive scene, whatever thats worth. Im sure it will pop up anyways, just wont be that exciting to watch, i feel.
Its almost like a guilty pleasure or something for me. Its fun to play with buddies, but i get quite bored in game. I like testing out new weapons and "builds", but also get kinda bored over time with all the annoyances like catapults (friendly especially) and cav. I like the game, but i also hate the game.
The mere fact that it's easy for new players means that it will always be less competitive compared to the m&b scene. Overall it's an easymode game for people from the m&b scene because there's no real difficulty with anything, it's easy to chamber, it's easy to block, there's nothing inherently difficult about the game, but you're right, the fact that it is easy as fuck is what makes it popular unfortunately.
Only people I've had somewhat of a struggle vs is the alpha players who have worked out every single way to abuse the combat system or the 50000 hour chivmy old friends who know how to abuse the combat system to an extent from what is essentially the previous game given how close they are. But it is newly released, time will change things, whether it'll get better is another question.
One easy way to win in this game is just to take the bloodlust perk with everything, resetting to max health every time you kill someone is incredibly broken especially when you use instakill weapons, that shit could put anyone at the top of the scoreboard lmfao