"I'm giving EA/Respawn one last chance and waiting until the start of s25. If the balance, matchmaking and cheater issues are not improved in any way - I'm also giving up on this game completely."
Let me save three months of your life: Balance will get worse. Cheaters already own the game and bans only serve to turn them into smurfs. And if they can't solve cheating and smurfing then they definitely can't fix matchmaking.
The only chance Respawn has at this point is to figure out a way to get out from under the boot of EA. And I'm not saying that will save Apex. It's already far too late for this game. I'm just saying that if they want a shot at continued relevance, or maybe even existence, then they need to stop letting EA destroy them and their games. Not sure how the relationship is structured, but these are usually some kind of "sell your soul" situations and I doubt very much that anyone at Respawn can escape other than by quitting and going to work for someone else. Although, knowing EA I wouldn't be surprised if all their developers are forced to sign non-competes. So "going to work for someone else" may well mean bagging groceries at Ralph's. Good luck, Respawn.