Why I believe MMR exists, and why I believe it is a negative.

This is a topic I have avoided because too many players use it as an excuse why they are not in challenger and why their teammates are monkeys or something. But I feel I can address this in a civil manner.

I've been trying to figure out why MMR even exists. If I am drastically better or worse than the people I am playing with why not allow me to slingshot myself up/down? Why limit me with an arbitrary system that matches me vs people better or worse than me just to slow down my climb/descent? Shouldn't I just play people in my tier, and if not available for queue health closest to my tier? Then I figured it out...

Grinding = game time = better game statistics = more money. If people could slingshot to their respective tier by playing well some would just quit for the season in ranked and just hover for the sake of safety and no necessity for climbing(this could be countered with more ranked decay). But! If you slow them down an give them an even win rate, you make sure it takes them all year to get where they belong, thus like time gates in an MMO, Riot uses MMR to 'extend' the duration of ranked content so you don't 'beat the game' to fast.

To me that seems like a bad thing. If we play better just let us rise, if we play worse just let us fall. Add more ranked decay in all tiers to counter hovering. Match us vs people in our tier. This would reduce the number of people propped up by their team mates and crappy MMR and those who fall because they are matched against harder enemies will be able to rise to their deserved rank.

For me personally, this wouldn't make me play rank less, it would make my rank climb feel more valid and I would play it more.

I'm not going to propose a specific design solution, I am not going to say whether LP changing based on MMR should stay or not. But I certainly should not be forced to play against better people, with worse people on my team, just to time gate my climb and slow it down. I don't know exactly what system should be for LoL ranked, and I do know they try to compensate you for your MMR with LP gains and losses. But I still think the system is bad and should be replaced with something more transparent, simple and fair.

Disclaimer: Oh and I intentionally posted this while on a winning spree with a high win rate in ranked as both my main champion and overall. So don't even try saying this is a rage post because I lost a game, it isn't.