While this doesn’t affect me, I know a player (who taught me to play) who has been playing since 2018 who has a rating of 367k but finishes in Champion 3,2 and 1 playing manually. Now you’re going to cut that person out because they can’t afford to upgrade a deck? I saw no mention of people who finish in the top 50 in rating each season being locked out of lower level tournaments. Those people consistently force the other players to fight in the bottom tiers which makes it impossible for to new players to compete in even the novice leagues.
This situation is very reminiscent of the Prince Julian rape that happened last winter.