Here’s what the former writing examiner commented regarding the updated public band descriptors: as anticipated, they’ve eased the minimum requirements, particularly for bands 8.0 and 9.0.
I had a look at the grading criteria for band nine and it's definitely softer than what it was. I've circled in blue some of the new wording that they have introduced. It's probably partly due to a realisation that some people actually need band nine and in the past... It was almost this kind of sacred cow that you don't give band nine unless you thought it was good enough to be a native writer. I haven't had a chance to go through all of it though.