I think it probably is. For someone who has been playing the game as long as I have, I lag far behind what most people would have achieved by now. I joined the game at the Beta stage, but just as the game went live I suffered a long and disabling illness and only got back to the game in late February this year, so I can effectively be called a new starter as from then because at that point I had a sidewinder that had never been out of the hanger and 1000 credits, although I do remember how the game was before Engineers and Wingmen etc.
I am not a natural combat pilot, but I do ok. I have tried to spend some time in the Haz-Rez every week to chip away at the combat rank, and as of a month or so ago when I got my second conda that became an A rated combat ship, I still found combat very challenging. However since then I now have a wingman and the ship is engineered to grade 5. I never have to run, my shields never go down and very rarely even get bent, and the targets fall like flies. It has nothing to do with me being a good combat pilot, but the fact that my ship is far superior to any computer pilots ship. I spend the same time in the Haz-Rez now as I did a a few months ago. My combat percentage as a Master pilot is raising twice as fast as it did per hour as an Expert.
Don't get me wrong, its still a long grind from where I am now to combat Elite, and I will still feel like I have achieved something when I reach it, but I think its probably a lot easier for me and the people who have had then benefit of engineering and wingmen than it was for the commanders who did not?