I don't think hackers are new. I think we just didn't know about them because we had no way to see what teams are beating ours.
I suppose there's the possibility that now that the hacks are known people are looking for them actively, but I don't know why you'd go out of your way to get yourself banned, especially since most people that know of the hacks are here or in discord where you can get advise to boost yourself quite a bit. Not saying they don't make a difference, but I think the difference they make is being exaggerated (nobody here but maybe the devs know though).
That aside, 4.5 mil is pretty much borderline. If more players want her (which would be reasonable, since she's one of the more reliable characters to carry late PF streak), then the score to get her will be higher. That's why I don't like telling people any score is "safe". Pretty much we won't know what we need unless they show us what the scores are live (at which point they'll increase quite a bit, since we'll be competing to beat those scores live).
It would be cool to at least see what the thresholds were when it's over. That way you could see how much harder you would need to work for the next tier.