Still Waiting for Solo Q

A common experience in ranked:

I'm plat 4; I expect high gold, low plat, and mid plat players in my games.

but I'll often get a gold 5 & their partner, a plat 2, who "balances out" the skill discrepancy from the gold 5.

Sorry, but the difference between gold 5 and plat 5 is much more than that between plat 4 and plat 2. The gold 5 inevitably ends up feeding their opponent who is usually at least 5 leagues higher than them. Then you have some monster on your hands and nothing to offer from the former

the fact that you can queue with someone whom is a full 9 leagues below you is a joke to competitive ranked games. A gold 5 can queue with a plat 1. The skill difference is massive, and a feeding less experienced player is often much more impactful (detrimental) to your team's chances for success than their counterbalancing duo partner, the player whom is only ~3 leagues higher than the game average.