The East has definitely gotten deeper - so deep that we might be a play-in/lottery team if we don't come out firing with our new coach (I do agree with the general notion here that our team is top 4-6 on paper though).
In the 18-19 season, 9th and 10th in the East each won 39 games. I'd be pretty surprised if both 9 and 10 this season have 39 or more wins (that doesn't happen very often for either conference).
Now there is certainly a decent chance that there will be more than three 50 win teams which was all there was in 19 with only the Bucks (60), Raptors (58), and Sixers (51) winning at least 50 that season. The C's won 49 and the Pacers 48 as the 4th and 5th seeds. And there is also a pretty good chance there won't be two teams winning the teens like there was in 19 as that doesn't happen that often either. But I just don't think there is a much difference between a 19 win team and a 24 win team. They are both awful. Same for a 30 win team and a 35 win team, both bad. etc.
There are only 2 teams in the East that could realistically make the Finals (Bucks, Nets - Sixers possibly if they get good value for Simmons), while out West there are 6 (Lakers, Suns, Nuggets, Jazz, Warriors, and Clippers with Kawhi - and that doesn't even account for Doncic's Mavs). So when you are talking about path to the finals and the depth of the conference, I just don't think the East is really any deeper when compared to the West when looking at year to year. The two best teams in the sport are in the East, but you'd take 3-15 from the West in a head to head like basically every time.