Ascendancy Trials Question

So, I tried leveling characters in both standard and Abyss leagues.

The differences mostly seemed pretty minor to me. The abyss mechanic was interesting at first, but it got old to me pretty quick, and the abyss gems and loot that dropped for as long as I was trying them didn't fit my character build.

One positive difference was that since most players are in challenge league mode, the cities were teeming with other players, and it was fun to notice other people's outfits and appearance. The towns in standard league are pretty deserted.

A bad thing I noticed was that the trap mechanisms in the ascendancy trials in the challenge league mode of the game seem to be running much faster, and therefore are much harder to figure out. In standard league, I wasn't really struggling to figure out what to do in those trials by studying the motions and timing of the traps. But in challenge league, I began to struggle.

Was that my imagination, or are the ascendancy trial death traps really running significantly faster in challenge mode?

Are you comparing like with like?

The Trials are going to get more difficult. The ones used to unlock the first Labyrinth should be fairly straightforward, but the ones to unlock the endgame Lab can be kinda nasty.