I don't know if the effect is quite as high as we are thinking. I have 4 players from level 140 to level 275, stats from 4bn attack to 15bn. I have attacked 10 rivals on each, all of which were higher ranks than me and only lost once.
Those of us who have played a long time will remember exactly the same uproar when they brought in units with 40,000 plus stats. We used to have to spend a fortune winning something that big then other night everyone around us caught up. I was the biggest stats player in my faction and dropped to average. A year or so on I'm one of the biggest again.