The biggest hurdle to hitting crystal is...

[yaba_gabagool]

in ranked theres consequence to losing so it does matter more than casual, some might not wanna risk their rank or are tired of losing so they wait till next season or they got to the rank they wanted, i stayed plat for season 1-4 for alliteration purposes and now im always playing(aside from the days that i cant) because cc is challenging, its because casual offers nothing to lose and alot to gain, that its more active than ranked also its just as ivolke said, the logic checks out fine when you put more thought into it, i would prefer if the rank reset every season but unfortunately that probably wont happen

What consequence? You go down in ranks until you're at the bottom of that tier and then nothing happens?

Also, you also drop ranks from inactivity so there's that too. Other people outclimb your spot.

Please, the only real consequence is when you're trying to climb out of diamond and into crystal, where you can actually drop ranked tiers.

Other than that it's literally just a numbers game.

I'm climbing on pld right now, and it's just the numbers that matter until Diamond +.

People just have a bad perception in their mind, or they're trying to mask an ego.

You're going to lose, get over it, it's part of the climb. You just gotta outlast the bad matches.