Even I'm relatively new to FRC still (06/07 season), but I think you'd need to watch even older match footage to see really rough match play
I actually love that this year finally allows for rough and defensive play. More so than the last few seasons. I love it! Imagine this without bumpers, oh how awesome that would be.
As for the coopertition/cooperation stuff: I was not a fan of that last year. It did not always allow for proper seeding of the best robots in the top and it isn't fun when your ranking depends on your opponent being able to balance with you or not.