[sweetjazz]

Yes, there are players who play too loose preflop and you make some money just by playing better starters than them. However, it's rare to find opponents who are so loose that you are making a ton of money off of them from preflop play alone. A lot of the players end up being 40/30 or 37/21 and that's a lot less exploitable than someone who is 50/2 or 76/47.

The games are somewhat tougher because a few of the loose players are quite good after the flop and most of the other loose players are not horrible. They still make bad decisions after the flop, but they usually aren't ridiculously bad.

So the end result is that the games are still beatable, but the edge isn't as great as it used to be and consequently the variance you will experience (in the form of larger and more prolonged downswings) will be more painful. (Technically the variance isn't any higher, but it feels worse when your winrate is lower.)