If you agree with me that the appearing of the symbol has become way more frequent and playmakers now look pretty useful, would you consider that:

1) The game engine has been altered to make the special ability have more effect
2) Playmaker has always been good and we just didn't notice before their effect because they don't usually get the assist
3) Playmaker is useless and the appearing symbol is just cosmetics, the special ability doesn't actually influence the goals

Imo it's probably 2, could also be 3, but 1 would be very unlikely.