It's always been like that. It's like that in every game, but especially in quake series as they tend to have shittier netcodes and more slow projectile based weapons and more dodge based gameplay.

And it's why in the beginning the "LPB", low ping bastard, term was a thing.

Claiming high ping is overall advantageous is mad cope spread from skill challenged players to justify their suck.

When offered the opportunity, said players would always refuse to play in high ping environments. Look at what they do, not what they say.

Nothing better than having 80 ping, just regained control of items. And 17 ping guy rushes you with plasma. It feels like you are being LG-ed with QUAD.