@Wheatbread86 I have been grinding ranked solo. It's definitely a challenge especially when you come up against a pre-made squad communicating with each other. That said, I personally enjoy the challenge and will definitely enjoy the bragging rights if I can make it up into Diamond solo queuing through ranked.
If you don't want to deal with that challenge then put together a pre-made squad. It's really not that difficult to find people who need a third to grind ranked.
As for the abandonment penalty yes it should be there. I had a ranked matched today, our third got himself killed and left almost instantly. My other teammate and I killed the squad who eliminated him. If they had just waited 2-3 minutes tops we would have been able to spawn him back into the game right next to his death box... Instead of waiting just a few minutes, me and the duo were forced to play the rest of the match out numbered. Instead of being able to play aggressively and go for kills. We had to play more conservatively and avoid conflict.
So just wait it out, your banner will expire or your teammates will go down trying to get it.