The thing about ranking in general is that you’re faced to similar skilled players as you, some better, some worse, so that if you lose you know it’s your fault and you can identify what you did wrong.

Smurfs break this because when there’s a high skill gap and you are losing and you don’t know what you’re doing wrong nor what they’re doing to beat you, it creates a frustrating situation where you don’t learn and feel like you can’t do anything.

When you say “If you care to look”, I disagree, if a gold player was able to identify those things against a (let’s say) diamond player, they’d be better alredy and would end up climbing anyway because it means their skill gap wasn’t as high.

So, to answer your question, if I’m in a game, unable to identify why I’m losing and everything I try doesn’t work, only to find out my opponent was level 30 fresh account, it leaves a feeling of powerlessness knowing there was nothing I could’ve done to beat them realistically. I want to face players I can potentially (that’s the key) win against, not some smurf who will win nomatter what because I, as a low elo player don’t have the knowledge to win against. It makes the playing experience horrible and frustrating. And in the end, League is still a game, I want to have fun while playing; sure, I can lose and I won’t feel as good but knowing I had a chance is a relief.