Yes, 125 is the land of mayhem. I wouldn't want the top seed at nationals, that's for sure!
I agree with the 1st part -- no other weight class is so wide open this year. Somebody said somewhere on social media (I'm usually good at remembering who, and would credit them if I could, but I think I saw it at @ 3:30 am as I was falling asleep, and I don't remember the person that posted it) that the mess at 125 started when Spencer Lee lost in the semis at NCAAs, and it has been unrelenting since then.
As for the 2nd part of your post, I disagree with that. The #1 seed almost always has the easiest path to get to the finals. If things go to chalk, they have the easiest quarterfinal (compared to the other seeds), with the #8 seed. With the mayhem that has been prevalent at that weight this year, the difference between the top 8 seeds (perhaps more) could be marginal, so that quarters match could be really tough. Still, I'd rather face the 33rd seed in R1, and the 16th (or 17th) seed in R2, than any of the other options.
Edit: here's the tweet (and reply) I referenced in the 1st paragraph, that I just found while searching for something else: