Reviving the Bay - a list of suggestions!

I keep thinking all your suggestions primarily apply to top players as they don't really apply below NML where 90% of the player base lives. What I've always suggested is an alternative to your plan: is a simple moving average Infamy calculation based on hundreds of matches rather than the per match ratings which are ridiculous. That way players can play in ranked and their Infamy won't move that fast one way or another, so they'll feel a lot more comfortable playing lots of ranked matches. As a side effect it also solves the long standing infamy tanking issue. One can also punt on that and just make battle rewards 2X+ in ranked and it'll get more players. There are a lot of easy yet highly effective solutions, but doing nothing is going to continue to run players off.

But again I go back to the fact that Matchmaking (Ranked, Event, and Casual) is not putting together competitive matches. Without that, nothing else matters, not fleeting, not match type... literally nothing.