I hear you, a lot of people feel the same way. You can always just play NMPZ if you want to limit the meta.

I still enjoy it because of the competitive aspect - you both have access to the same information, who put in the effort to remember and recall it better?

If it were only meta I would hate it too. But there's always a nice mix in the vast majority of rounds. And always a few rounds here and there that are so hard they'll humble even the very best!