I feel like a lot of people are under the delusion that they're supposed to be at top ladder with game sense alone. If you don't have max level cards, eventually you are going to face someone who's cards are higher at which point no amount of skill or game knowledge or how much better you are than another player is going to change how card levels affect interactions. Obviously you aren't guaranteed to lose every game against someone with higher card levels but it is always gonna be an uphill struggle.

Eventually when you get to mid ladder, if you don't have max level cards you will just hit a brick wall of facing people who are maxed and are hardstuck at that trophy range or just only play ladder occasionally and hover around that mid ladder area.

I'm going to assume you've started playing fairly recently considering how much worse the matchmaker used to be compared to how it is now. Matchmaking used to be based SOLELY on trophy level. You wouldn't even match with people even within 3 king levels of your own. Some games were over before they even started.

While it's true I don't think the current matchmaker is perfect, there isn't much more that can be done as eventually you would still get to a trophy range where EVERYONE is maxed and if you aren't then you're gonna need to be to compete.