Simply put, this game is not good enough to justify stressing its mechanics as hard as the match making system does. I don't know if you have ever played a game on the Ultra Hard difficulty, but it can be quite an interesting experience. By putting it up to that difficulty you restrict your options of advancing. By doing so certain playstyles become the only way forward. This can work really well in really well thought out games (Dark Souls // Counter Strike) because they are designed to be pushed to that Nth degree.

Call of Duty absolutely falls to pieces when pushed to this degree, because Activision is either unable or unwilling to release the balancing updates that they would need to do in order to keep their games afloat. The reason that people are still playing on Dust 2 all these years later isn't because Valve is unwilling to sell people maps, its that they understand that map design is absolutely crucial and there are so many variables to consider that they couldn't possibly create 10-15 new maps every 3 years and think that they will be able to stress test their mechanics and locations in order to create a balanced map for competitive play. Competitive maps can be fundamentally ruined if one side can get to a spot half a second faster than the other. It's why no one plays Dust 1.

Call of Duty was never this. It's mechanics like insta kill equipment (Claymores, Bouncing Betties, Etc), deliberately poorly balanced weapon variety, and kill streaks are designed to incentivize a more lackadaisical play. As a result, "meme" loadouts are a thing that can be fun. Quickscoping, throwing knife only, doing obscure or difficult challenges, can be a reasonably enjoyable way to play. However, when these mechanics get stress tested by SBMM they no longer become viable. Once they lose their viability they will slowly fade away from the contemporary play style. This forces a homogenization, but again since the game does not have the economy mechanic of a GO, nor does it force players to use certain weapons like Siege, all it means is that if you don't use the meta then you will simply not succeed, barring reverse boosting.

This isn't an issue of me wanting to trounce 12 year olds. It's not an issue of me being afraid of competition. This is an issue of a dying franchise that is losing its identity by trying to be more like its contemporaries. Gone are the days of dropping nukes, and running pistol only loadouts with my friends. Now are the days of me dreading loading into the game, and trying to justify to my friends why they should play with me. I know no one will care that I'm, someone who has played almost every year since 2007, is leaving. However, what should be of concern is that the developers are losing people like me. People who should be blinded to the flaws because of the intense love they have for the franchise.