But I went to my first store champs of the year this afternoon, and it looked there were a lot more Imperial lists in play, and at least 3 Imperial lists in the top 4 (pretty sure the guy who came 3rd flew Rebels - but not certain).

Didn't get a good look at the winners list but I'm pretty sure it was a Palpmobile (possibly doomshuttle), Deathrain, and Soontir build. 2nd place went to the classic Vader + Soontir + Palpmobile build (lost to him in game 3 but didn't get completely annihilated) , and 4th place was 2 Tempests with Title and AC, Storm with Title and ATC and Soontir with AT PTL Title and TIE Mkii (that was me ).

Anyone else noticing Imperials making a bit of a comeback or is it just me?

Rebels have been at par until TLTs came out

because PWTs are PWTs

and PWT+Ace in most cases was an empire victory thanks to AUTOTHRUSTERS

now PWTs are cooked mostly, and rebels got themselves a shitton of stress options, so aces also suffer

Nope, Rebels still rule the roost, here and I suspect in most of the world.

a dedicated Crab-Bro player never gives in, never gives up!
Kill all humans!

a dedicated Crab-Bro player never gives in, never gives up!

Kill all humans!

Only recall seeing two scum lists today - no Brobots - they don't feature too heavily in our local meta - only seen them once at a Tourney

If you look at the top 16 of Worlds, sure, it is pretty heavy on the Rebels. But the diversity of factions opens up a lot when you go to top 32.