I believe the track put too much friction on the wheels, causing them to basically melt away.
Pretty much, yup. It's the combination of the high forces and the duration they're applied - plenty of coasters pull 4-5G's, very few of them do so for more than a second or two at a time. I305 pulls that straight through that entire turn, and before the reprofile that was probably somewhere around like 7-8 seconds worth. Now it's probably closer to 4, and then the forces begin to decrease a bit as the train loses speed. It's still enough to force all the blood in your brain down and cause the greyout, but it's done wonders for the wheel longevity!
Reason why on warmer days there is water sprayed onto the track between the brake run and station......