I'm 11mil gp, kyber 3, 7 gls. I was in kyber when there were GP brackets and I would still prefer that. When they changed to "skill based matchmaking" I was 4m gp kyber 4 then got banished to bronzium. I got back to kyber4 at 9-10mil with 5 gls, got squished back to aurodium. The entire time I'm punching up 1-2mil gp and was up to 3 GLS behind. I pushed auro 1 to k3 of unlocking profundity and leia now with 2 meta fleets and 7 GLs im stomping 13m gp with 8-9 gls but obviously its not nearly as bad the higher up you go. I'm LSB enjoyer/light spender that's been playing casually for 6 years off/on to get to where im at and casual that despised conquest i am just now unlocking conquest characters off PGs and that is making it easier and easier to beat whales with low skill.
TLDR: im most of the things you say dont count and completely agree with you from being FTP gone LSB enjoyer that GP system was fundamentally better.