While the teamplay aspects of this game are a huge part of what I enjoy, I've never tried to be "competitive." When I'd discuss the toxicity and gameplay issues I experienced as a solo queuer, I was encouraged to move into ranked play to avoid them. Solo queue ranked was the only place I could get a fairly stable experience.
Playing with friends is great, and premade ranked teams certainly have their place, but it teams to exaggerate/unbalance differences between the teams, typically resulting in a landslide win or loss, rather than the tight match ups that everyone loves.
Riot has showed extraoardinary disrespect towards solo queuers, removing even our ability to observe who is and is not premade. Obviously the premade teams know they are premade, so this only affects the solo queue players. The new crafting system is geared towards giving premades advantages over solo players, and obviously the report system is going to be a hell of a lot more forgiving towards players who are going in with friends, so won't have nearly as high of a report/games played ratio