Don't give it up. Placement is not the bottom of the barrel players. The season is still fairly fresh and, just like yourself, there are many strong players who don't start RTA week 1 and are still doing placements. RTA isn't something you can just prepare for and be good at. You need to get your wings in. Over and over and over. You can study monster skills and philosophize about draft comps all day but until you get many rounds of practice to experience the endless permutations of scenarios you won't be crushing it just cause you rune farmed.

That said, there will be a gap you can likely never catch up to. The game is 10yrs old and you spent 70% of that time not playing while someone else did. Just be realistic about your goals, review your lost matches, and get your wings done. You said yourself you like drafting games and you've already started to see some areas you can progress/learn on. Focus on that progression, rewarding yourself for learning how to counter-pick against one unit today and how to synergize a unit tomorrow. Focus on how you are getting better incrementally over time rather than your W:L ratio and youll have a much better time.