It just feels like you either go full prem with bond/bounty equipment in a 3 man platoon of OP/meta tanks to be competitive or you can fuck right off. I played a few battles yesterday with a couple of mates that aren't really that great (yellow/orange and green). There were always 3 arties and we were facing Chieftains and 279(e)s while being pummeled by arty and to make matters worse, our teams usually melted and we were the last guys left alive fighting. I'm at the point where I am considering selling all my tier 10s and just playing tiers 9 and 8 where there's slightly less gold spam and tryhardness.
Aside from all of this, it's also stupidly expensive to play tier 10, at tier 9 I am actually pulling profits (playing TDs though) while at tier 10 it's usually negative 50-80k depending on the tank because if you sling AP in the S.Conq you are putting yourself at a disadvantage and most of the times you can't even pen. Hell, even at tier 9 you need to fire occasional gold in TDs (found out, to my surprise, that you cannot pen the Bobject's "weakspot" with T30 AP from 50m away, I think it's a 50/50 shot).
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/gtwlqr/tier_10_is_not_fun_anymore/