If you want to think that obtaining 5BWAZ is the same now as it was 5 or 10 or 15 years ago.
I don't remember arguing that.
I don't know what you're getting on about.
Things in ham radio are
always changing. Somethings make it easier, some harder, but it is always
different.
The FT8 part may, on balance, make it easier for some. But in my personal quest, JT65 was the actual difference maker, not FT8, really.
Meanwhile, expeditions to some places are rarer. That has less of an effect on 5BWAZ as it does DXCC, but it still has its effects. Fewer stations to critical zones means "harder".
The thing is, some of us forget that we did CW not out of some virtue or other. Not for 5BWAZ. No, for 5BWAZ, it was to get the most QSOs out of the same station. FT8 is just the next version of that.
Meanwhile, if the stations move off of CW, whatcha gonna do? If you are really interested in 5BWAZ, you work them where they actually are.