That makes sense. I did not realize but you are right, I have yet to win without models alive this edition.
The changes on the charge action have also made killing harder to avoid, as the hitter can walk and charge into my scheme runner, while in the past, the threat range tended to be smaller. A scheme runner was able to leave behind potential dangers with 2AP, and would be able to scheme one turn later. Right now, the "area denial" of a hitter is twice it's movement (if generalizing) in stead of just once as it was (generally) on m2e.
Your example on tournaments is very interesting, as it may seem that a game focused on killing is a game with less points that one that is focused on scoring. That way, on a tournament, you may end up winning all your games but place lower than players that focus on scoring, but on a 1v1 game, against a rival, killing MAY give you the victory. Of course, there is no "right path". I have faced Colette, for example, and she could trample my McMourning team without killing my models while scoring perfectly, and I, who had a more agressive crew, could not delete my enemies and also fell behind on the scoring game.
The core game will reward deleteing your enemies, but how much does it take for you to do it is what will make the difference. I, for example, enjoy versatile crews that can kill some enemies but can run around them and score if needed. Mobility and durability have given me more victories than going fully for the kill, but having the resources to delete one or two enemy pieces without too much hussle is something I almost never regret doing. Denying a player of one of his scheme runners since turn 1 or 2 and only spending one activation in doing so is a very rewarding thing to do. It can be a game changer and force the opponent to rethink their game plan. On the other hand, as I do not trust my luck, I tend to search for objectives that may be done without flipping cards at all, making extremely slippery and mobile crews that can run around my enemy without having to face them directly.
Today, at my community, that is not particularly competitive, I do not see the rewards for killing an issue on the game, but I can totally understand that, in certaing matchups it can be a big issue. Facing an opponent that can simply delete you from the map in two turns while your whole crew consists of non-offensive fragile models, it can result in an NPE for someone that wanted to focus on scoring and faced so much pressure it was not an interesting game.