I predicted this when the system began being used like that. It's not a bad thing, but it forces a judge to identify every individual descriptor now, whereas before you just had Tone/Technique/Musicianship (? - I may not be accurate on the boxes) with the plus or minus you may or may not have used. There was not a clear impact on the rating.

Now it selects a rating for you on the screen. You can move it one higher if you wish, but the good thing is you can't move it lower without changing your descriptors. (I consider that part a positive for justifying lower ratings)

The other piece of the puzzle you may be experiencing is that with the retired group from pre-COVID, I think there are some disconnects with the post-COVID situations that evolved. We're finally seeing some normalcy in our sixth graders, but reading and everything has been lower in the 7th-9th grade group. That's had an impact in music reading/skills too!