Its been more than a year since theyve open 18. IMO that should've been enough leeway for the players to gain valor and xp.
In the case of vaults, IMO one of the main reason we dont see more players queue on other times is 'cause of the lag inside vaults. Most of us have only a small window where the lag is bearable enough to play and enjoy it. PL players starts to queue around 13:00 during saturdays and this will continue upto 01:00 the next day most of the time. On the other days its 17:00 - 00:00, I think thats not bad at all for lvl 16-18. Its those who will level up to 19, who i think will have some issues to start vaults for a few weeks once we got the update.
The update doesnt just bring level 19 but also new stuffs, i think that the sooner we get updated,the sooner we can all grumble and complain about it.