Apex can reclaim its throne by getting rid of aim assist.

That’s not a counterargument at all. I’ve been playing FPS for about a decade and have played professionally twice. If you think this is what an "average" player looks like, then sure, the high population in Diamond would seem weird—but that’s not the case. The only reason Diamond is so crowded is because AA is carrying people who shouldn’t be there. Most of them hit Diamond without even knowing the basics of BR, just thanks to AA. That’s exactly why it’s such a hardstuck hellhole.Besides, if the impact of AA is really as "limited" as you claim, you wouldn't mind if they just removed it, right?

And about the "Golden Age"—anyone who was actually there knows that controllers were a tiny minority. Most streamers were on MnK back then. Controller players only started swarming the game as the seasons went by. The Golden Age was essentially an era where AA didn’t dictate the meta.

There's a reason I'm pushing for the total removal of the system. Remember when AA went from 0.4 to 0.3? Did the player count go up? Nope. The meta stayed the same, and all it did was erode trust. Even if they tweak the numbers again, people aren't coming back.

There are two types of AA: Slowdown and Rotational. Rotational AA is the real issue because its tracking exceeds human reaction speeds. If the proposal was specifically to remove Rotational AA, that would actually be practical—but what percentage of the community even understands that distinction?