I'm in the same boat as you guys. I don't have it as bad, there are still enough players that I can defeat if I absolutely have to, but unless I'm getting +1 mil per hit by raiding moneybags, there's no way I can do any kind of regular pvp and come out on top. I'm lvl 79 w/ 54k atk and I'm losing valor and very-low casualty rate units to people with 25k def (which is as low as I can find... and even they are extremely rare).
The most frustrating thing is that it doesn't seem to affect everyone... I just talked to someone who is 5 lvls higher than me with 125k a/d who is still finding rivals with less than 20k def... makes me want to quit.