Get 50 once, keep that general tag forever. A big reason 1-50 is so beloved is as simple as that. I'll take the more accurate ladder method any day- more of a challenge.
If Arena had all the fluff and bling and it was easier to get the rank they wanted (i.e the ceiling was much more easily obtainable)- I'd be shocked if those good players you mentioned had the same opinion. At it's core- I truly believe it has little to do with competitive gameplay for most people.
Dude, if someone sticks themselves on lvl 50 for clout and tells everybody, I'd be happy to challenge him to a game and show him he's ridiculous. I liked the ranking system cause I actually used it.
I'm gonna implement 1-50 in one playlist and one playlist only. I'm also going to base how fast you rank up based on your K+A/D for the first few months. Also, everything is AR starts with Camo, Jetpack, and Armor Lock loadouts. Enjoy my implementation of your ranking system.
Now do you see that the main faults of Arena were not on how it worked, but how it was placed? What happens if you change it to the following? Division ranking in 5 playlists where you play 5 games to get matched into a division. You can then move up or down in your division until you are at the top or bottom and then move up or down a division based on how you play. Wow, that sounds like it appeals to casual players by giving them progression in 2 places. Wow, that sounds like it appeals to hardcore players by making sure they are at the top of their game to stay at the top. How do we prevent rank lock? Reset the divisions and make you play another game to compare with your previous average and re-evaluate what division you should be placed in.
I do think its implementation, rather than how it worked, was its biggest problem. However, I still think games counting differently is an incorrect way to go about it. The first 5 games shouldn't "lock" you in, even if you can change your rank after that. Each game is separate and should therefore be treated that way, but more importantly,
feel that way. There's something to be said for divisions since it makes it feel more like a tournament, but I think maybe that should be something seperate.
I definitely think they could tweak arena to make it more "in the moment" fun rather than having your aggregate kills/assists, etc. weighing you down. I also think they could tweak the ranking system to be more accurate. I'll just say that neither one was correct, so if they do have something similar, lets hope its better than both.