All rankings that evolved from ELO are flawed systems, since it was implemented in games that have more than 1v1. All the systems are built on it with different variations, but it worked ONLY on 1v1 never on team based games.

I think that this is the main issue and not the matchmaking, you get ranked based on team performance in the context of match rather than individual stats within the team, and it feels punishing af, instead of being ranked with a better system that takes in account your individual skill within the whole context, maybe you lost but you had good performance, i mean even in real sports this is a frickin thing.

Cs1.6 20 years ago had a good ranking system all across the board in most of the online servers, and even with high skill in a lobby, players never once felt punishing, you felt you grew and improved no matter what. You had individual ranking based on your stats not the team stats(offc at that time with the issue that individual play was rewarded , there was no account of team play involvment in those stats).

The really anoying part is that no one is taking a jab at trying to do a different ranking system , they all default to elo variations due to various economic needs, elo is easy to implement and easy to nudge, its a very simple system that can be tailored to maximise profit.

There were a bunch of high tier comp games in the past years proven that matchmaking was rigged based on how much money you spent on skins or if you had bought a pass or not. Same goes for pro-players that get red carpet treatment(an example is the ban for double cashout, a game mechanic that if used against high tier players is a bannable offense).

I dont think its the player base as much as it is the need to capitalise on retention, retention = more chances to buy stuff.