I am getting the impression that MSport is now sacrificing "everything" for Rally1. I'd guess with the aim of both "pleasing" Ford and selling the Rally1 cars (or drives in them).

In many ways the situation is very similar to 2005-2006. In 2005 they used Gardemeister and Kresta (who was paying) + some other pay starts (Sola).
Then in 2006 they hired Gronholm who was 2x World Champion and Hirvonen who had some very good results/speed the year before. Most notably they also basically completely ignored Fiesta S1600 development at that time.

So now it is entirely possible they ignore Rally2 development for a while and try to get more income from Rally1 where they have less competition.
(depends on how Hyundai acts though, lately they started offering paydrives to the likes of Loubet, Veiby and now Solans, basically stealing MSport businness case)

For me the biggest differences is in the lineup: Gronholm+Hirvonen vs Breen+ Fourmaux and Greensmith (likely).
- Breen has more merits and experience than Hirvonen had in 2005 but nowehere near Gronholm.
- Fourmaux is about comparable with Hirvonen at end of 2003 (two years less experience).
Both are one step down basically.

- Greemsmith now is a perfect copy of Matthew Wilson at that time, in more ways that one.