Way too hard and not fun anymore

I don't know if you are still here @writchie . I doubt it, but your post does illustrate beautifully though in a financially wasteful manner (I assume you are loaded with money so you could easily afford to run your test) how King's tactics have changed over the past few months. Us long standing players will have to change our playing tactics and strategies accordingly.

This is how I keep going:

Don't pay for anything. Don't play the game at times when you hit a wall of episode after episode loaded with impossible to pass levels. In April I believe there was such a wall in levels leading up to 10,000, which may be why @writchie was driven to this mad experiment. King were counting on players to spend money to reach that milestone. There is also such a wall in levels 15,000+ at the moment, as King are counting on players to spend money to catch up with the end of the game. Those are the level ranges particularly targeted with impossible to pass levels. If you find yourself in one of those blocked ranges and out of boosters stop playing! Your progress and gold is safe as it is saved in King's servers. Then do one of the following:

1. Forget about Candy Crush and have fun doing something else with your spare time
2. Delete the app. Reinstall the app. Play a new game starting at level 1. Make as much gold as you can by winning every episode race. Spend gold and boosters wisely (gold only on impossible legendary levels to keep your sanity) and you will continue to make a gold profit up to level 2000 at least. I have managed to save up 8000 gold bars by level 3000 by doing this and by using events wisely. The game is now event based, so new players will succeed if they use the events effectively. Also I play slowly but each episode in 24 hours to win the gold prize. The best speed I find is to play one episode per day. This way events have paid out enough boosters for me, and the only boosters I have purchased with gold is occasionally for timed starting boosters. I do get ads, on and off. To get ads and keep ads in a new game, clear your internet history before reinstalling the game. It worked for me. I think that clears the cookies King have placed into your device and so they think you are truly a new player and will treat you accordingly.
3. Give the game a long break. I mean weeks or months. (not more than six months though or King may delete your account). If you are breaking for a long period two things are likely to happen: King will make that level range easier to pass generally. They will do this if too many players quit or are stuck at a certain level range. Also King will give players a welcome back reward. When I did this I got lots of extra moves for my initial few levels and better events to get me back on track. That was when I quit at level 15,000 for a few months last year.
4. Take a definitive break from playing new levels but log in daily to collect boosters. Use Season Pass, "Don't feed the troll" and any other events that will give you free boosters for playing and replaying easy old levels. Don't be tempted to waste these on new levels for a few weeks, until you have gathered a bucket full of boosters. Don't forget to give lives to your friends every day and hopefully you will also gain lots of saved lives yourself. Then try playing one new episode through using your saved up boosters and using those boosters to pass the trickiest levels. It should help you win the episode race and may help you back on a winning track.

I don’t know what’s going on, I am assuming they have made levels so hard that people will pay for boosters and gold bars. This week I am still on the same level. I have not passed it and I’m on day 4. I had a ton of gold bars, boosters etc.. because I saved them up instead of using them so much. I now have 4 gold bars left. I notice now after using all my gold bars and boosters to pass levels that something is up, and I don’t like or appreciate it. I am ready to stop playing this game completely. It’s very sad how everywhere you turn people want all your money. This use to be fun to play and now it is not. Why play something that pisses you off. If this doesn’t change soon with an update, I’m out. I’m very disappointed King. I’m sure people are paying so it won’t change.