Rivals ELO Hell is real - here's my theory and breakdown

So I was a long time Overwatch player grinding a few seasons up to Masters on PC on all 3 roles as support, dps and tank. I do see a lot of similarities when comparing Overwatch to Rivals, but there are also some major differences.

A lot of mechanics such as understanding your role, positioning and cooldown management and ult usage are the major things that carry over from Overwatch to Rivals. There's also the counter swapping which is important. Don't continue to run your Ironman into a team with 2-3 hitscan and keep getting owned. In season 0 I played about 70 matches and climbed up to Diamond 1, but this season I can't get out of gold in 50 matches.

In my games I have noticed that there are many players at the gold, platinum ranks that simply don't know how to play the characters that they are picking. It should be like this but it's not.

- Bronze & Silver ranks don't understand what they're doing and are simply learning the game and the flow of the game. Their ability usage and ult usage is not the best. You button mash your abilities, trickle into team fights and don't understand the objective and play call of duty for kills. Your deaths are high.

- Gold, you've learned more about the game's characters and can effectively participate in team fights. You can stay alive and know how your role a bit better. You use your abilities better and your ult is usage is better. However, this rank is still the majority of players and it is still a button mash fest at times, trickle fest and you still don't understand great positioning and the flow of a team fight.

- Platinum - You can utilize your abilities and ultimates better than gold, understand the flow of a team fight and position better than gold. You know counters, and how to target players to help your team during a fight. You should be able to recognize the flow of a team fight, when to be aggressive, or defensive. You understand the game is a game of ultimates and you can combo with teammates and provide more value.

- Diamond - Same as plat but better. Your positioning is getting better. You make less mistakes. You play with your teammates.

- GM + UP. - you're better than most, and now it's just skill, knowledge, team synergy that allows you to rank up or win games.

However, my experience through all these ranks, is that there are players there that simply don't do this and they don't belong there. They are playing as if they belong in 1-2 whole ranks below their current rank. It amazes me how they are even getting into these ranks. My theory is that there are so many players playing the game, that the chances of people being carried and climb ranks through sheer luck and having their teammates carry them is happening quite frequently. It's understood that you can't have an amazing game every game, but you can still at this point understand your role enough to provide value to your team. I also am trio queuing and have a teammate that isn't the best and clearly doesn't belong in the rank he is. We're basically helping carry him into the higher rank.