Don't really know how to word this. I feel this soft reset went really badly.

Not sure words can even explain the issue. But I'll give it a try and many others are feeling the same way.

The soft reset was... Well... too soft? I feel that the system isn't punishing people for playing poorly. It's as if there is no elo being taken. More like... Free hand out?

You have this start where if you lose nothing really happens. You just keep going up in your first 40 games. Regardless of how you play unless you lose like 30 of the 40. Then once you hit that 40-50th game you hit the mark where that boost runs out. When you get there you have so many varying elo's. Diamonds playing with golds, plats with silvers, and all kinds of weird stuff. You know what happens with this? You get lanes that are extremely one sided. As a jungler there isn't much I can do if the lane I gank is just getting rekt 3-4 levels under his opponent. Gank early and they don't even respond. Sometimes I get matches where I can go afk to the store and come back with a victory. I could go 0-10 and win if I get most of the higher elo players on my side.

TL:DR Resets really need to punish people too. You can't just give elo. That doesn't work in an elo system and only messes it up.