It still exists. It's always been hard to download. You can usually find the latest version on the game's actual webpage. You can find the webpage by digging for the return of the king topic in new releases. You need a Baidu account though, which can be tough to sign up for and thus, people started putting the installer on dropbox, mega, etc. Obviously, this causes problems with links expiring and the like.
As for the game just being harder to play, nope, it's flat out broken unless someone can show me a recording of actually playing the game. For reference, I don't consider the game playable unless we can read all menues, activate all skills, equip and unequip items and see the stats on them and the like, just as used to be possible before external application interaction was locked. Sure, we can still "play" the game now, but since only channel messages translate, that means we're effectively blind. We can't see enemy names, can't see what items we have equipped, can't see which skills we're using or which skills our character even has, etc. It's kind of possible if you played the game before translation was broken, but definitely not for a new player and definitely not as playable as it used to be. Unless the english translation has advanced further than I thought it had, I contend that this game is broken until further notice and ask for solid evidence in the form of an audio recording if I am to be proven wrong.