Why is gold 5 literally 3 times harder than silver 1?

Plat and Diamond smurfs sit there to destroy less experienced players to feel good about themselves.

Its not. You MMR didnt change between Gold 5 and Silver 1. You are getting matched with exactly the same people after your promos.

Games are matched based on MMR. Division is literally meaningless

Silver 1 players have hopes to get to gold.

Gold 5 players partially don't belong there and just got lucky/got carried there.

Well, according to Mohs scale of mineral hardness, Gold and Silver are actually about equally hard.

The skill barrier between S1 and G5 is basically the same as the difference between the day before you turn 21 and your 21st birthday; the differences are so slight as to be indistinguishable, and only have significance because we give it to them.

You might perceive differences, but aside from dumb luck handing you tough matches right after promotion, your matches are going to be the same on average. Just focus on improving yourself, because if you get caught up on those borders and tiers and such it'll only serve to tilt you.

every division 1 works harder because they want to climb to the next tier. everyone in say g5 for instance, recognizes they cant fall out, they're more relaxed and chill and dont care about winning/losing nearly as much. they have no hopes or aspirations to climb any further and they're content knowing "they're better than everyone else below them." namely all of silver and bronze.

(despite the fact that they in all likely hood still play with them them every single time and never run into another gold player)