Ranking system

vVv_Bjoergen_vVv​ D4 wall has been there forever and only exception were "free to take Masters" seasons when Respawn (as rumored) created easy ranked system to make cheaters get their Masters faster and gtfo of the game (clearly didn't work, loads of camping newbs even managed to get low Preds and flex it big time now :D, given even Gold skill players were Diamond+ lobbies were basically as pubs + everyone was ratting it out knowing that if they take a fight being low skill they will 99% lose it = basically unplayable. Still remember first season of those where I suddenly saw Masters badge pop-up (I do not pay much attention to ranks, points during the game), realized how ridiculously easy it was and stopped playing just because I could not take that bs lobbies anymore.

As per my post "actual infection rate" even from high Plat lobbies you see hackers in 75% of the games -> D4+ the number probably is close to 100% and more importantly not just 1-4 squads have a hacker but you face like 5+ hacker 3stacks = if your chances of winning on Plat+ are slim then in D4+ they are 0. Basically only way you can do so is by luck either playing in times when only kids who don't hack are online and hope for somewhat clean lobby or that odd jackpot game where hackers take out hackers and legit players manage to 3rd party remaining hacker squad to play for the win between legit teams. In my experience happens pretty much never.

Been in Apex since season 7 and it has ALWAYS been the case that legit players aimed for whatever was attainable for their skill level - Plat or Diamond - and then just quit / went to play pubs or more often created a smurf and went to play on that one decimating Gold- lobbies. Respawn have done literary 0 improvements regarding Diamond+ lobbies up till 3-4? seasons ago where they made them even worse by creating this new EBMM system where Preds are not stacked in one lobby instead you get 1-4 (usually 2-3) Pred/Master 3stacks in Diamond- lobby EVERY **bleep** GAME. So yeah because of that I don't even bother to play the game anymore, come when bored to grind battle pass, 0 f@$@ given about ranked points if I lose or have a bad team just forfeiting the game and move to the next. Basically I treat ranked as pubs when doing random battle pass grind.

Hiendofmediumlow​ sounds like something about Apex just gives you hard time = Diamond for experienced players with brain should / haven't been a problem basically up till this / previous season (mainly due to hackers present already in Plat). Also there is huge difference between EU and NA player base = pretty much since I have been playing Apex it was considered that NA is 1+ tiers EASIER e.g. if you were struggling in Plat in EU -> switch to higher ping games in NA and you get Diamond.
Also most players play controllers on NA, knowing that you can adjust, play certain legends like Bang or Path and give very hard time to controller players = giving you advantage if you play it right.
As for 2 and 3 stacks in Masters / Pred = yes, I agree that soloqing to Masters basically was never an option unless you exploit something in the game be it turbo input or less populated servers like Sao Paulo (back in the days). Still the biggest difference in Masters / Preds always have been hacks. I have had 3 stack a few time with decent players who did not struggle to get to Diamond (our fastest run I guess was <7 days from Gold 1 to D4) but we still hit a mighty wall as soon as we went to D4 and never stood a chance vs Masters / Pred 3stack ever despite having good teamwork and mechanics, because you can't fool wallhack and outaim aimbot.
Typically how you can see them hacking:

• they magically isolate and push as soon as someone from your team breaks apart from the team, creating unlosable 1vs3 (given they have radars / aimbots, they never lose that)
• magic skynade for 100 to gain massive advantage
• more blunt cases where they just use mobile legend, push into your face and one-clip you with r99, PK or whatever other weapon

As in recent video of Zeus on YT where he actually went to cheat in some other game he proved what many like me knew from the start in Apex = if you have skill and work on mechanics Apex is more about timing and ability to spot enemies in cluttered environment -> if you have even "just" radar and see on the map where people are, you don't even need wallhack to make huge improvement in how good you can time your pushes, isolate enemies, win fights you otherwise would not as you would not have a clue where to look, had to spend time scanning environment, would be late to switch targets etc. Which Zeus proved making some sort of world record in that game just by radaring.
Point being - in many cases of your mentioned Master/Pred/Streamer 3stacks people can play so chilled, interact with their stream chat, have limited comms just because they use radar or worse and don't need to worry about being surprised by someone or think much how to rotate, they just do what you see these days in streams = go from one fight to another as fast as possible and have 0 concerns about rotations or end game positioning as they can win from any position unless facing as "stacked" team where those funny hackers vs hackers fights break out where you see totally brain-dead plays IQ wise but amazing precision in shots made.