How to get to Western Hill, Dragon Gate directly from the Kunming airport? Thank you in advance!

You can take airport express bus line 5 to Dianchi National Tourism Vacation Zone. Then you can take cable car to pass over Dianchi Lake to Western Hill.

Is this still the case? How much does this cost?

Generally yes. As I know, there is still around 2mi from the tourism vacation zone to the lower station of the cable car, which is actually in the Yunnan Folk Cutural Village. So you may need to take a taxi to reach there to catch the cable car then. I remmeber the cable car costs CNY60 per person.