This is sadly true. The top 1000 players on the leader board are from accounts created the day the game came out. With most of us years behind them, there's simply no way to reach the "end game" without just waiting for it to happen.
Every new patch does add something to help speed up the game a little. But nowhere near enough.
The old apk mod that's floating around lets you max out the available content within a month. But as soon as you transfer your save over to the current patch, there's still a massive hill to climb.
