The problem with Apex

As much as i understand your point, it's probably worth pointing out that there is a split each mid-season and end of season. These splits probably sets you back a bit too much, so it means a lot of good players end up in much lower ranks then they should. They do this as a louzy way to punish inactivity i guess.
As a former diamond player untill season 4 i am now also in Bronze on PC simply because i don't play there a lot. And in Silver (set back from platinum) on PS4, simply because i don't bother anymore with Ranked. The reason being that in ALL of my random games, the opponents i get, are a better represenation of my 'final rank' then Ranked mode will ever be able to simulate (with the scoring system that's in place now).
Therefor i honestly only play ranked to have a few enjoyable easy games after each season or midseason. It's a welcome change from the the non-stop 20kill/4k dmg and predator opponents i get that get very tiring to run into. And those are in, i repeat,  EACH AND EVERY SINGLE RANDOM GAME. No chill.
So forgive my frustration, but it's probably the only few enjoyable games i have, since it's impossible for me to play random games with my 2 newbie friends because of the SBMM.
And you are right that that's a f*ked up reality, i agree. If their Ranked mode would work like it's supposed to, they could just remove the SBMM in total because if noobs wanted to play with noobs they could play in ranked in bronze or silver. Unfortunatly that's not how it works now.

This SBMM is the only reason smurfs get made. I'm not sure how it works but all i know is, my friends always complain when they play a game with me the opponents are 10 times harder then when they just play with their 2. And it's really not enjoyable for anyone. They don't stand a chance, so it usually results in 1v3 in most cases where at least one of my friends gets 0 dmg.

Ranked mode just has many problems. The score system mostly rewards grinding, not actual skill. This makes the difference in skill between players very big. On top of that it's even made bigger by allowing bronze 4 players to be in the same squad as gold 1's for example.

So i'm not saying you're wrong, but not every great player you see in lower ranks is necessarily a smurf, although i wouldn't be surprised if many of them excist.