I found the number of collectables was back up after the change, but the Xmas collie spawns were dismal yet again. Had to buy a lot in TO on 2 servers just to complete the achievement. there was also the 'classic' bias against at least 1 type on each server.
Too may days were like this: 24 collectables spawned, all 24 barrels.
You woukd have hoped that after 3 years the Devs could have worked out a better system than this, the game does not do "random", it stinks at it and basing events so much on these "random possibilities" does not work.