Without LT tribes would have died 5 years ago, and it really only came in once Base began it's 10th round suck fest.
I've always loved LT (for all the reasons I've always said: No hiding behind your team, forces individual skill, better teamwork, heightened versions of all Light Pack options (LO, LD Chase, LD Home, Capping) etc). It's become a vastly different game than even when I first played it, but it's not hard to adapt. There is shit you see people doing now that would be matrix-calibre during base's time (the 180 degree beacon jumps, MA-gren launching, etc).
I can understand it would be frustrating to just come back now. Everyone smurfs, everyone is a douche, everyone cg's nonstop and you get spammed to fucking high heaven, but it's still tribes at it's core, and it's still a blast to play in the right circumstances.
If you want in a PU, you're going to have a hard time. The few that usually run them pick their friends because they have more fun and they are typically other fulltime LT people (aka higher skill). It's annoying as shit when you see some Pug scrub get picked over you (and you sit there going 'fuck that I own that piece of shit, fuck these niggers') , but all I can recommend is offering to captain (secret free way in!), or offering to play Home D since no one wants to play it.
Or just befriend some of them. I run a fine line of 50/50 love/hate me so it's really a dice roll on being chosen or deliberately being skipped
gl!