I gave you some of my speculation on the vague "why" question, but another reason the challenges are coming earlier is that interested plaintiff's learned from the Obama challenge experience. Courts stated why the courts would not entertain the cases, and some plaintiffs adapted.
As to why Cruz and not Rubio (or Obama), the legal argument against a person born abroad is much easier to make, and rests on thousands of precedents, all of which are uniform on the subject. The Rubio and Obama cases are more difficult, in light of WKA and Plyler.
Apparently they didn't learn very fast. The first challenges were in 2004, but they're just now figuring it out.