Salary revision is still scaled based on criteria that we are familiar with, just that top end players are now more expensive.
Due to changes in training patterns, it looks like the salary scale will be somewhat higher next season than it is this season. We expect the salaries to be around 10-15% higher at the top end. Also, as previously announced, players will continue to come out of retirement occasionally in order to help regulate prices. One change for this season's batches is that most players will have aged during their absence.
I have some non-trained players around and the 10-15% increase seems about right. It's definitely painful for everyone hiring top talent.
Player strength is still best indicated by salary. Team strength is the sum of it's parts, which is your overall team salary. Safe to say, generally the team with the higher salary bill is the stronger team. The only reason that you might not think your team is stronger than mine is probably because we have not seen that monster Center in action yet. That's a 150k difference from last season right there. ;)