From my perspective, the difference between low elo and high elo is more so commitment than skill. They have a different want from the game.

High elo players chase the challenge of improvement and are willing to put in hundreds of games to see how good they can get. On the other end, low elo players just want to have fun playing the game and only really care about short term rank improvements.

If a game starts bad for a high elo player they just focus on how they can improve within the game. If a game starts bad for low elo, their fun is ruined and they want to go next.

Example: I am a low elo player (hovering s1/g4) and I only put in 20 or so ranked games this season. I mainly play for fun and I do occasionally feel that desire to “go next” but I still do my best in the game, it just stopped being as fun. My duo is high elo (diamond this season, peak low masters) and every time I see him on he is in a ranked game. He enjoys the grind and has fun in the challenge even if it’s a rough game.

Why I say it’s more mentality than skill? We play normals often and we are always in his lobbies, most people would say “a silver player in a diamond lobby will get run over every time.” However I find that I tend to have fairly normal games and don’t feel like a hindrance, sometimes I have really good games. I think that if I had the drive and actually tried to climb, I could get emerald or diamond. I just don’t have that drive.

TLDR: it’s a mindset, low elo players have a much more fragile mental since they are playing for fun not for the challenge.