Is that really the case in the last few years/decades?

My understanding is that any company that can (read: has enough money for good lawyers), will prefer to use trade secrets for a combination of reasons, a big one being that competitors cannot use that technology after 10 years/when the patent expires.

Admittedly this was from my entrepreneurship classes in a European uni, so I'm not sure how it is in different places in the world.

Patents in the US are 20 years. Given how short sighted modern companies are, I can’t imagine anyone at any large company is even planning for something 20 years in the future, much less placing much value in an outcome that far out.