Good post pinbuster. I started seeing this situation almost 15 years ago in local tournaments. One association would run a senior tournament one week and a regular tournament the following. I always scored better on the same pattern in the senior because we didn't have guys moving in right away.
I still see this a lot any time there are a bunch of high rev guys. The transitions get real tricky. THS is a bit wet dry to begin with. Guys moving in too quick just move the wet dry line in, and worse, the dry track become is very angular, forcing us lower rev guys to throw around the oil line and cover way more boards than is best for our game.
If you look at what is left of the tour now, all the guys play much more direct and further right on the long patterns. The only exception was last year on the badger when the guy purposely tried to blow up the pattern because he knew he could loft the lane better than the other guys.