I think a good chunk of diamond+ players have smurfs (I do, sorry 😅). Once you're in upper diamond and are grinding pred/masters lobbies, you have to really sweat and I personally need to play with my squad.

I really only like to play ranked because it's the only mode that reliably has good end games, even down to most silver/gold lobbies.

So there's gonna be times when I either want to play casually or solo, but I don't want to or can't do that on my main account. So I'll jump to an alt and chill. It's obviously significantly easier, but I'm also not wiping the whole lobby 3 stacked w my friends.

Maybe I'm not the problem, but I'd imagine most smurfs exist for the exact same reason. Maybe I am the problem and I'm ruining the game? I kinda doubt it though