Pretty much this.
Abyss is even worse, you can't do anything unless you have an alliance with you. Even then you will get swarmed pretty quickly. Any 1v1 you get is against someone with much better gear/skill than you. Or a ranger jumps out of hide and blows you up XD.
It's a combination of things, Asmos have far greater numbers, leadership with a lot of experience, and much better gear. A lot of people went Asmo/rerolled Asmo for easymode. The result of that is they are controlling everything, with lots of Elyos quitting before they even hit 40 because they get steamrolled in Eltnen/Heiron.
I don't blame anyone for doing this, it is a game after all and getting kills is fun. But if it keeps up Siel will be the same as Israphel pretty quickly, then we all lose out. I am hoping that people hang on for more patches to be released because ap/gear will come a lot easier, just gotta think long-term and not get put off by the current situation.