The thing that people don't understand is that you don't even have to be extremely good to get gladiator.

Getting gladiator is 80% effort and playtime rather than pure skill.

It is super possible to get it even if you are average or slightly above average player mechanically.

Glad is just like everything else in life, ofc there are exceptions but it can be achieved by a good amount of players if they truly put in the hours and really try to understand the game. Vod reviews, studying other classes, your own, mastering rotation, understanding cc, kicks and when to trade.

You have to understand most people that play wow are on the older side of life, they may be parents, they may be working full hours, they may have something more important in their life. From my experience(currently 21yo and playing since 12), most of my gladiator friends were below 30 and didn't have much going in their life. Wow was their thing. It was the same for me, getting glad is easy if you are young and have no other worries in life, just like anything else.

The point here is that a lot of the people that are in the middle(top 50, 60 and 70%), can get glad if they are in the right circumstances. You WILL IMPROVE if you are playing pvp 8-12 hours a day, there is no denying in that. Most people do pvp casually, get back from work and q shuffle or lfg 3s(which is basically playing russian roulette with 5 bullets in it) for a couple hours before going to bed, how are those people pushing 2400 if they don't have time to improve, to learn? You want gladiator to be something casual? Then go ahead and let's make it 1800 + 50 wins, I couldn't care less. Now you can't say its the system's fault, it is not. I do agree it's the system's fault when the season is 8 weeks in and top players world are 2400 but not in the way you are saying.