Tbh, I was mad at this update at first too, I still am but for other reasons I will mention in a few sentences.
Yes lvl'ing has become "harder" than before, but also more challanging/fun. It isn't just brain dead anymore.
They trainer tower is really not that bad if you give it some time and enjoy batteling.
Now the points why I am still a bit mad at the update:
It's still very buggy, for example:
High entry fee: abt. 20k each entry. Got fixed very fast for me, dont know if people still have that problem.
Still I seem to have problems I thought were intended, but friends told me otherwise, it seems if I go in with 3 lvl 50s for example and 3 lvl 60s and do Trainers on floor 50-59, my lvl 60+ mons aren't getting any xp, even though they are alive, after a few tries I left the tower and tried again. To which I even got mader, as I didnt get any xp to any of my mons on floor 80-89, I didn't do more trying on any floors below because I am broke AF.
Talking about broke AF. Another point that I think needs to be worked on is the money you need to enter. Ofc, it's an MMO everything is about money, (traveling, ivs, safari, and so one) but I still think it is very money draining. (especially using revives and potions), Don't get me wrong, I think the 3-9k entry fee is totally fine, but to get the most out of the tower without using any cheap tricks like dragon dance sweeps, you gonna burn a lot of money using healing supplies. So if you'd like to level up a whole team of 6 (which is most likely they way it was intended since I also get less xp if I go in with less mons - Idk why tbh, maybe its a bug too) - to fix this i think a nurse joy on each floor could be very helpful, and I am not even talking about a free nurse, just make it like on mirage island and make it 1,5k to heal your team, (still alot cheaper then using revives and potions/ leppa berry and other pp restores).
Conclusion:
I do think the intention of the update is very good.
Although - there are still a lot of bugs, and I still do think it favours rich people alot.
If you like to level up alot of pokemons to try them out in pvp or boss battles (which are litteraly only doable with lvl 100s) you are going to burn out in no time without using any tactics.