I dont know about the competitive teams thing early 2000s. If your talking about the top leagues its roughly the same amount of teams competing for titles in each league. There was more teams competing the last ten years or so really
It's different.
Let's say that back then Barca had 100m to spend, Real 100, Atletico 70, Valencia 70, Deportivo 50 and other teams 20.
Today you have:
Barca 500, Real 500
Small teams 20
The difference between teams is bigger today.
It means that big teams are able to buy all players and they are dominating way more.
Let's say that Barca:Las Palmas was a match with 8:5 shots 20 years ago.
Today it's like 20:3 in shots.
That means that Cr7 and Lewa get way more chances today and they score way more than attackers from 20-30 years ago.
Both Messi and Cr7 would probably drop from 50 to 30 goals per season if they would have played in 1998'.
R9 from Barca's days would be a 50-60 goals per season guy today.
Ruud from 2004-2006 would bang 50+ goals per season today for Rm/Barca/Bayern with current Mickey Mouse 6:0 and 7:1 trashings at Camp Nou.
Today we have a different football world.