Difficulty increase?

Is anyone else noticing a marked increase in difficulty across so aspects of the game since the last update?

I’m not the best player by far but used to think I was alright. Since the last update though I can’t complete things that used to be doable and I’ve noticed lots of times that things seem to lead to a prompt to buy knives and if you turn it down the game seems to almost punish you for it.

I’ve been back and forth with myself over posting this. Don’t want to seem like a cry baby.

I just know that this game used to be very enjoyable and not it’s very frustrating.