Can someone explain how this is balanced matchmaking

The irony of this is. Going back years ago, they did have a constructed tier system, where they matched skill sets accordingly. But like all things that work in this game. They abandoned this concept. The problem now is. The online base of players is dwindling. Probably do to the outrageous costs to play online. And this new XP system they have adopted, is a repititious, go no where system. They have taken the incentive out of the game.

It makes zero sense to have ranks if there is no matchmaking based around it. The entire purpose of having ranks in a competitive game is so you match with other people of similar rank. I also don't like how they display the rank where it displays your season high rank instead of your current rank, if you look at the screenshot im a Plat 2 but my RP is the equivalent of Silver 1/Gold 3. I payed attention to the RP last night and its actually kind of hilarious, playing full games of 6v6 if my team won I get on average around 300RP, but for a loss on average I lose around 500-600RP. 

As for the dwindling player base in online modes I agree costs to play online could be a factor, but additionally people have also just given up on certain online modes due to lack of interest or due to EA doing something to it that no one likes, I sometimes go play online versus because there isn't really any BS with that mode. I played HUT earlier as well but I stopped because its just repetitive and if you miss a few days you are screwed out of some kind of event, too much grind and cards eventually become worthless as they add more... I honestly think that if they release a NHL game on PC there would be a boost in players.

Also discontinuing the franchise on old generation consoles left a lot of people that can't afford a new console behind, or even people that just don't see value in buying a new console to play a game.

 I can’t wrap my head around this SBMM idea. Why should we all have to suffer much longer wait times because you can’t be bothered to lean in. If your team isn’t that good, you’re going to lose a lot of games. I don’t know why anyone would expect otherwise.

The framework for it is in the game already. EA could make this a togglable matchmaking filter for ranked gameplay, that way teams can match against other teams with closer skill levels while leaving it purely optional as a way to not hinder matchmaking times significantly. But honestly if i had to choose I'd rather wait longer to match against a team that is similar in skill, the match would be more fun and consistent with a lot of back and forth play. Lower ranks don't like matching against higher ranks, I myself don't like it and I've matched against lower ranks where they leave the game because its not fun. For example in my screenshot I posted about my first finals game was a DNF loss because the two other players on my team left. the score was 4-0, shots was 10-1 and it was the first period, no one finds this fun at all.