The only difference between most players, stone rank to plat, is simply character cheese refinement

You don't get skill expression until like diamond. Character strength simply carries that much. Coming across players who aren't reliant on the same character spreadsheets is a genuine joy. The game practically encourages you to lose individuality with how much you're rewarded for simple linear gameplay, results are largely not tied to getting better at player vs player but rather getting better at your character's particular gimmick. Extremely easy/powerful things are extremely hard to punish so why would you bother learning to play any other way? The game does not encourage healthy growth, if you rely on online results to shape how your gameplay develops, you're going to get hard stuck. It will always be better to learn how to do these difficult punishes on these simple powerful things in the long run but the game certainly doesn't encourage it and not everyone will come to that same realization naturally with how much that stagnant methodology gives them results