Questions - Temporal rift + others

1. I thought Temporal rift skipped 80% of levels when maxed? I'm on level 25k and only skipped 7k levels. That's more like a 30% skip rate. Did they change this? I noticed because all of a sudden it started taking hours longer to complete (to level 26.5k).

2. Did they make the game harder? Before the huge matrix update I was getting to level 25k. Now my max is still 27,000. Even after using all the new boosts (130% health, 130% attack speed etc). That plus a crap load of play time. I just flat out stalled out. Can't progress at all.

3. Gold. How the crap does one get more gold? The max I can get is 7.5q But been getting that for a long time. I have endless shards of progress but can't use them unless I can get 10q for the next gold and Exp per level upgrade. I'll have that soon but the next will be a lot more.

So am I finished with this game or are they working on things still?