Yeah, I've always held this belief. Up to last matchday 8 teams out of 10 were in the hunt. And even lower unknown squads like Bolivia and Colombia and Venezuela are better than many of the minnows/mid-table teams in Europe. Home advantage in insane, you almost never see more than 1 team breeze through qualifying without 5/6 losses.
For sure they are the toughest to get through in. uefa qualifiers are a joke. all the great teams all split up so they all get in. plus the conmebol is like a league and harder with travel and so forth.