They did that today.
THE PTR & FUTURE UPDATES
In the coming weeks, Diablo II: Resurrected will be launching its first ever Public Test Realm (PTR)—a special realm where we can test balance, bug fixes, and other enhancements we make to the game. We invite all of you to participate, as you’ll have an opportunity to play a crucial role in testing features and evolving the experience for all players. When we get closer, we’ll share more details on how you can gain access to the PTR and trial these changes.
The primary focus of that PTR will be revolved around fixing database issues and stabilizing our online environment. Once we are confident these fixes are in a good place, we’ll share more details on Ladder rank play and even more new changes coming to Diablo II: Resurrected.
They really can’t release Ladder until the Database issues that force the queues and game creation timers are fixed. Imagine having servers crash again for hours a day, chars rolled way back or deleted again, items going poof, etc. That would be a TERRIBLE ladder theme!
Much better to have that database fixed as the most important part. Second is to get the other bugs sorted.