So the # of armies provided with the draft icon has now dramatically reduced. Whereas it was in the low millions it is now in the low 100 thousands. Is this by design?

There are two parts to the draft amount. One is the fixed amount you get for every draft, the other is the flexible amount that varies.

In the last update, the flexible amount was decreased by 3%, and the fixed amount was increased by 30%.

Depending on how often you draft, the total armies drafted could get bigger or smaller for you. If you draft often, you'll actually see more armies than before.

However, if you upgrade to the new version in the middle of a level, your draft numbers may be skewed since half that level was with one version of the draft formula, and the other half was with the new version. This messes things up, so I'd encourage you to wait until you start a new level on the latest version before drawing a conclusion on whether you like the new draft formula or not.

Fair enough, thank you!