When someone plays the rank card in an argument

Except the people who hate on Laughing Fish are literally only the people who have no sense of humor and want to have "serious discussion" about an online game.

I almost thought there was nothing more pathetic than 75% of the league community who think they're better than everyone for spending a good portion of their lives glued to their computer. But then, I saw people who did so, and also took it too seriously. :'D

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Oh okay NOW I see where we're disagreeing, though I understand the general idea you're getting at now. I thought you were using it as a blanket statement compared to "Under most circumstances" and you can see why I was hesitant on your idea. I still disagree that the majority of players in lower ELO behave in that way, though I can affirm from my friends it's much more common in lower ranks so I'm split on my opinion there.

It's not exactly that,it's a combination of a lot of things. Say for example I would see a challenger(note that I'm saying challenger for there to be a meaningful skillgap between us,though masters would work as well) make a statement I disagree with,here are options on how I will react to it: 1)If I don't really understand or care for the matter at hand,I will likely just leave it be. 2)If I do understand the matter at hand and feel like the person is sensible about it,I will ask for clarifications on certain things which don't make sense to me. 3)If the person doesn't seem very sensible,I will likely see what other challengers who understand the matter at hand(for example I won't ask mid mains about jungle),then call him out on it depending on what they say.

As you can see here,the only case where I actually argue requires a decent amount of work on my end,and I honestly believe my approach is the same approach of sensible people(and there are plenty of those in silver/gold),but that actually means that they are most likely to either say nothing,or take their word for it and not argue.

In contrast,an idiot will be VERY eager to share his inexperienced and moronic views on right about anything,and don't expect him to phrase himself in a way which state "well I'm not too sure about it",instead he will spew complete and utter bullshit as if it's a universal truth.

Due to the distribution of the playerbase+a lot of people on the boards are silver/bronze out to prove themselves+idiots are much more likely to argue with better players than sensible people,you get that most arguments are dominated by idiots and buzzwords(quite likely with both sides having no idea what they are talking about).

Hell,take the famed winrate sheeps of the boards,with this "argument" being spammed constantly in every balance thread,now even though most people don't base their perception of balance on winrates,these comments generally dominate upvotes and what people think of the subject(unless we are talking about lee sin and friends),why do you think that is?

Hint: Every idiot can say winrates tell everything and thus grant him complete understanding of the matter at hand(hence they are very eager to do just that),people who actually play the game well know that's just not the case.

Finally, I think the best example to kind of show what I mean by knowledge vs skill would be this as an example:

Imagine for instance I do a TON of research on a game before I play it. This is a PvE game with a multitude of weapons and the enemies usually follow set patterns with the occasional change due to certain factors that cause the change. I could know EXACTLY how much damage each weapon does and how quickly along with the best patterns to avoid damage from enemies. However, KNOWING isn't the same as DOING. Even if I know all this info, that doesn't mean I have the reaction time to dodge, feel comfortable with the weapon I'm using despite it theoretically causing the most damage the fastest, or even how to handle multiple enemies at a time.

See here's the thing,all of your argument is based on reaction times,but some matchups are defined by them,I mean let's face it,slow the game(Basically everything stays the same but time moves at 0.25 the speed) down and the game changes in nature,even on a competitive level champions will grow both weaker and stronger,this is why for example a lot of people on the boards are delusional to how hard of a counter yasuo actually is to skillshot based champs,they don't really see the good ones,those who show you that the champion is in fact capable of dodging skillshots very consistently,and not just randomly like they do in bronze.

Practice is what improves natural skill while knowledge helps reduce risk in a situation.

Not really,If your knowledge of the game is very good,you should be able to reach diamond by jungling.

Finally I'll say it actually is possible for a bronze player to have a good understanding of the game,but mostly by parroting statements made by actually good players,that actually doesn't really devalue his knowledge in any way,but he can state his sources when making a statement solving the whole issue,otherwise,and seriously: if you have good knowledge of the game,your rank should reflect that.