Yes, but now it's in the realm of ~3 minutes, and not ~8 minutes even on a top-spec PC, right? I really liked the game, but waiting 8 minutes to load just to get griefed by hackers within seconds of walking outside... I don't understand how that game makes any money.
It was like crack. People put up with a lot of problems and bugs just because it was really fun just enough of the time to get them hooked.
IMO it varies widely. This past weekend it was taking me multiple attempts to get logged in to a public lobby— after waiting ~5-10 minutes!
Nothing has changed appreciably. If they would let you login to a private invite-only lobby that would likely speed things up greatly— but it’ll never happen.