Oh it certainly does. Because they made the decision to not invest into playing China. And this decision is driven by what they think gives them the best chance to win. People have been investing time into Japan and India because these are very strong civs. Even though they were released later on and many people already had a “main” civ.
And its not only the 2 people in the finals. We have seen ALMOST NO ONE play China and have success with it.
However, we have seen people play the same civs over and over again: France, Brits, Germany, Japan, India just to name the most played.
Portugal is also being played a good amount. Even more since its recent buffs. This is more proof that players will play the stronger civs, because it gives them the best chances to win. Portugal was not played as much before its buffs.
The fact is people play that which gives them the most chances to win. Anything else wouldn’t make sense in a tournament. China is not giving them the same opportunity as with all the other civs they have chosen. Therefore we can conclude China is a weaker civ overall. We have enough evidence for this due to many different players and a large number of games. Not just in the Goodhouse tournament. You can simply watch all the ESOCTV tournaments on Youtube. You will barely find any games with China.
See for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDpnRJ_LXufk8-S0k6AMZAg
Edit: Someone collected the statistics from goodhouse cup. Obviously no one played China:
Here's Goodhouse Cup civ choice record if anyone wants to talk about