Can we talk about the neglect Square Enix shows towards the playerbase?

[Valence]

I assumed the ranked DC rotation was supposed to help with this already, by encouraging ranked players to congregate to a single data center (within their region) instead of being spread out per season.

It doesn't. In fact and I'm only speaking for myself here but I do believe the DC rotation actively harms the ranked scene because people are frankly sick to DC travel. Personally I'm not even bothering since the current one is on Chaos, I'm doing exactly what I've criticized the system for pushing people into: reaching crystal and parking there because I just can't be arsed anymore. Next season will be on Light and I'll be able to be active more, but what about the people from Chaos?

Fuck the DC rotation system. Seriously.

What would happen if the CC casual mode was simply removed and everyone who queues for CC is automatically in ranked?

People have noted some players dislike the pressure of ranked, but if you're not very good and the MMR works passably well, you'll be playing with the same scrubs anyway. Like basically the lower echelons of ranked would be indistinguishable from current casual? Maybe?

They'd need to be very careful about it and I believe we would benefit from an opt-in option to check in order to get considered for the leaderboards and ranked leagues. Everybody would otherwise share the same hidden MMR/elo and be pooled into the same queues and everybody opted out by default would not see anything related to rank. At best you'd get a "your historical performance so far qualifies you for gold+, do you want to opt in? Y/N"
But then the question becomes more where do we draw the limit? Do we suddenly allow certain MMRs to be pooled with others (like Crystal with Casuals/bronze)? Else, what would it change ultimately?

I agree. Unfortunately I suspect SQEX still has some poorly-considered notion that CC could become an Esport.

Maybe but sometimes I also appreciate actually playing with people of my skill level or above. If the idea is to make serious players just go for queue syncs like in FL with premades and invade CC during certain times... I guess? Or having to make customs, is this the idea? People constantly want tryhards out of their mode in FLs, why would it be different in CC?