Yes, climbing Sagarmaatha is said to have been made easier (I would not say it is easy) because our sherpa dai's go up first during each season, anchoring climbing ropes right up till the highest point on earth. The crowd that comes behind are tethered to these ropes, which spares them the peril that came with climbing mountains like Everest. This is true on the Nepali side, but I have no idea if that holds true on the Chinese side. I came across this through conversation with lot of mountaineers. Even the best-seller "Into Thin Air" verifies this statement. If it weren't for the seasoned sherpa climbers to lay the climbing ropes each season, climbing Sagarmaatha would still be a very difficult experience, even though global warming has affected the way ice behaves on the slopes. Even the Khumbu Icefall is said to be less intimidating these days than when compared to the dangers climbers during the Sixties or Seventies faced along this treacherous stretch. A lot of  commercial climbers would only dream about it without the immense help sherpa guides do by way of laying down the ropes. Each year when the mountaineering  season opens, the difficulty level for the first batch of sherpa climbers is said to be no less than what it was for Hillary and Tenzing or the climbers before them!

But despite the ropes, one should know that Everest is not climbed easily. The climbing experience has only been made easier.
By the way, simply because it did not happen in the Nepali side, I would not call the teenager's achievement sad at all as it is a responsible attitude to not let a frivolous person to attempt scaling Everest and having Nepal Govt. to spend thousands of dollars on rescue, later on. If you are below sixteen, you don't get your driving license in the US, and can't climb Everest from the Nepali side! Good Luck!