It sounded to me like searching for the Guild mates was something she started doing only in the recent months, and only just now realized that she doesn't have any idea what kind of reunion they'd have if she did bring everyone together. And it seems to be something she's only doing because she misses them so much.
I'm sure she's made progress as a mage, but she's also got to take charge of her life and honestly becoming a reporter/editor for a magazine is a great accomplishment for an aspiring young writer. While I have no doubt she's trained, remember that the dissolution of Fairy Tail had rather different contextual meanings depending on the person. Natsu himself knows that he's prepping for a fight against Acnologia and Zeref, and so that has set the context for what this year of training has meant to him. But not everyone had that specific idea in their head, since Makarov never officially declared war against Zeref or anything, nor did his disbanding the guild come with any caveat that they definitely would come together in one years time ready for war. Erza, for instance, has no doubt trained just because she's Erza, but she didn't have an expectation that she'd be going into battle with Zeref either, merely a feeling like Tartaros' torture of her had brought out dark memories of slavery. Laxus definitely had a "I was too weak to protect my friends" thing going on, so he's probably been hardcore training, and Gray wants to take down END, so he's probably been developing devil slayer powers. But I imagine a lot of others have had to move past Fairy Tail's dissolvement in a matter of fact way. Levy might be just running a bookstore or something.
I'm interested to see if anyone just went ahead and joined another guild, but I'm on the fence as to whether that'll happen or not.
None of the other major guilds going to the Grand Magic Games raises a big flag in my head through. Not even Cerberus.