Issues with Flex Ranking, Flex Restriction and Suggestions

Riot,

Following up on my tweet. Here's the quick problem: The flex ranking system makes it overly difficult to find five players with similar rank to flex queue with. While I agree the ranking can't be out of whack and lead to poor experience on both sides for 'stompy wins' I think where it's at now could edit a bit that doesn't create that, but improves the experience:

• At the start of the new season, it did not reset the flex rankings for all players. This means that in order to queue with friends, it was a check on their ranking from the previous season in order to queue for a game during provisional. This means, let's say the majority of the party was plat before, but we have a friend whos' been waiting for the new season so they can play with us, well we can't. That new friend is forced to go queue themselves, get their rank up to just start the new season with us. (this is how I understand it at least)
• When you go into a game with five (or three), it just says the difference between the ranks is too high with a (!) icon, but there's no additional information about what needs to happen. How different is it, what is the solution, who's too high or two low. There's no information, you have to dig through profiles to figure it out and even then it's confusing because it's using a ranking from last season.
• Playing with friends should be easier, especially at the start of the season.

Ultimately I think the solution is that it needs to check two things, their current flex ranking (not the past, on the start of a new season) and two if the flex ranking is off, but their solo queue ranking is similar - it should override the flex ranking and allow the player to play. If the flex ranking is off AND the solo queue ranking is also too wide then it should restrict.

Thanks for listening - sorry this post isn't as detailed as it should be, but hey it's the start of a conversation.

Steve