The current generation flagships and top prosumer mirrorless have action AF probably close enough to on par vs the previous flagship DSLRs. However, anything below that level may still be pretty slow for fast action.

Yeah, I think it’s only such an apparent issue due to the amount of foreground blur. Maybe something you can solve more with composition in the future, to reduce the amount of foreground depth that’s out of focus?

That’s good work, but is there a good way to fade out the focus more gradually?