How about if you were >= gold 5, you don't have to do the prelims and try to leave Br/Slv ELO again

You just would start at either Gold 5 or you current rank. You have the skill to be there, why do you need to prove it because it no longer is "season X"? I'm sure you don't lose your skill over night when the season ends. And just because the clock hits 12:00AM does not mean that you forget how to lane or how to push/freeze a wave.

The level if ignorance and mistakes in gold ELO compared to bronze/unranked ELO (silver is hit or miss) is already fairly large, and it just gets bigger the higher the rank you have. It is unfair to us who earned these positions to have to play with people who don't understand why as a support you do not group as tight as possible to your ADC against an , or why you do not chase the fed enemy team looking to fight them all by yourself. "But I am an assassin". Your 0-11 and only have 4 item components including tier 1 boots. All of them at minimum have 3 full items and tier 2 boots, not to mention you are 4 levels under their support. Yes, you can in fact win it by out scaling in late game. But you need to get their first. It seems most players don't get the stuff which seems like it should be common sense to most of us. And it is from lack of experience.