You're right. Thanks to Akiyama as booker/promoter and Kento Miyahara as the top star, AJPW has grown from their absolute nadir in late 2015/early 2016 to being a pretty solid indie-level group now. Conversely, Bushiroad's involvement in NOAH, while it may have been the only thing keeping them in business, resulted in the installation of Jado as booker and the interminable Suzukigun invasion angle that completely tanked interest in the promotion. They sold themselves to another company and are trying to rebuild with Katsuhiko Nakajima as the top guy, but it doesn't seem to be taking.
All of this is laughably small potatoes compared to the period being discussed in this thread, of course.