Why I like Climbing in Ranked

There is a lot of hate against Ranked: how the current system creates elo hell, placements are broken, it takes FOREVER to climb, and jumping divisions is a pain with the best 2/3 or 3/5 series. I think climbing the ranked system is pretty great and I have a quick story to justify it.

I recently started playing ranked again. Quickly rose out of Bronze (so much for elo hell, but that's not the point) and got up most of the way through Silver. This was all in solo que, and as I progressed I noticed a clear improvement in my skill level, and my teammate's. Then I duo'd with a friend. He was also on the rise, but had made it through Gold 3 and was getting matched with Plat 4-2. This game, I could tell that the players were out of my league (pun intended). Map awareness, mechanics, lane/jungle pressure, and objective control; they were quite clearly better than me on every front. While I didn't feed, I couldn't contribute to my team as effectively. They simply overpowered us and won, not an incredible stomp, not a close game coming down to one thrown teamfight, just lost.

Now the point is, that through my solo que games, I've improved overall. But I know that I haven't improved THAT much. The system limits your advancements so you HAVE TO be better than your rank to progress. The limits give you time to learn, but still allow progress if you actually deserve it. Now on the downside, if you are slightly better than your rank, it's a longer fight to advance, but that's how the system should work and means it is working as intended.

I'm interested to hear other people's perspectives on how the system functions, or if it should change.