There’s a lot to talk about in your post, but I think this is a core issue.
OW is not a grind. By “grind” I mean a game where you earn something simply by repetition of play in the game. WoW is a grind game. Borderlands is a grind game. There are probably others, but I personally HATE grindy games.
It doesn’t matter how many games you have to play to get what you believe to be your “true” elo. That’s simply not the point of the game.
As a matter of fact, I know several people who’s GOAL is to play several hundred games this season. It’s not to “find their Elo” but rather simply to enjoy and get better at the game. Not to mention, people throw their games in an effort to lower their MM score so the games will be easier for them when they do play.
OW is hard. If you are at your “true” SR the games will be very, very difficult. So difficult that you will lose half of your matches. Not get close losses either, some of those losses will be getting stomped.
If you don’t like how long it takes to “grind” to get to a certain SR value, Overwatch simply wasn’t designed for you. That’s PERFECTLY fine.
WoW wasn’t designed for me but it is an extremely popular game. The thing is, you don’t see me getting a subscription, playing the game, then going on to the forums complaining about how absolutely boring it is to grind out stupid rinky-dink quests just to gain some meaningless level.
So don’t come on the Overwatch forums and complain about how much time you’ve put in, how many kills you’ve made, and all you got was this lousy SR. This game isn’t about increasing numbers. It’s about getting better and having fun.
A static SR is not a bad thing at all. Neither is a slowly rising one. Not only is that a core design philosophy of the game there are many of us for whom that is THE KEY SELLING POINT. This is my first multiplayer FPS. Why? Because in the other ones it wasn’t fun to go into a match and get immediately pummeled by people much better than I. Here, I get teammates that generally are close to my level. Maybe not compatible or the same skill set, but a smurf or a thrower is pretty noticeable (and rare).
Don’t get me wrong. There are in fact several issues with the matchmaker, but even the title of this thread is basically a restatement of how it is actually supposed to work. OF COURSE THE MMR SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO CONTROL UPWARD MOBILITY IN RANKS. That’s the ENTIRE POINT.
It’s so scrubs like me don’t ruin higher level games and good players don’t come down and ruin my games. In and of itself, the MM is actually very, very good. Bad people, big range groups, and bugs (like the one fixed in the most recent patch) do make things hard, but that’s hardly the MM’s fault. (Well, groups maybe…)