It's odd...
I started ranked for the first time this season, in February.
Almost every player in all 10 of my placement matches was unranked. Yes, many were ranked (often high silver or low gold) from the previous season, but they were unranked for that season. Many (I'd guess 30%) were also entirely new to ranked like I was.
That said, you're starting ranked literally right before a new season starts. Very few players will be ranked from season 4 and have not yet played ranked in season 5. So there's probably no one to match you with - they guess you start at silver 4 (you played a few ranked games, if you won all 3 you'd probably be around silver 2 now then) and they match you as best they can.
Also btw, both queues will balance out for you.
If you carry every normals, you'll eventually get to higher elo in normal queue and fight harder opponents. The quality of my opponents in normals is higher than it is in ranked if anything (and I'm ranked gold 5, during my promos I was playing mostly with gold 4s and 3s; most of my normal matches are with golds and a few plats).
Likewise, if you play enough ranked you'll drop down. You'll hit a spot, say silver 5, where you're at the right level and no longer feed, you'll only be a bit worse than your opponents. This is where you want to be. At this point you'll get a lot better by playing because you're playing with people slightly better than you. It's hard to learn from mistakes when you're getting crushed, but in close games you can learn from mistakes and improve your play bit by bit.
So it's best to just dive in to ranked, play some games, do your best but don't worry if you lose. A rank is just a rank, it means nothing really. Eventually you'll hit the spot where you can help your team and start improving.
I'd say that was (at least somewhat) my experience. I feel like losing in ranked at first made me a lot better and ultimately helped me climb a lot. Once you get a few out of the way, ranked really isn't any different than normals. There isn't a huge skill difference. There aren't even less feeders. It's just as snowbally. Only difference is most people are playing a champion they play a lot rather than someone trying something new.
