Sorry to rain on the parade, but that's barely even a lukewarm take. The explanation is fairly simple; there's no point for the vast majority of people to even try to compete in platinum, so the only reason to even have a defense is if you need to advance in rank (if you're below G5) or if you're at risk dropping ranks (down to G4). As such, having a 1-man defense is not a problem for you, while it helps others build up their GH and in turn they hopefully reciprocate so that you can spend as little time as possible on something that most people don't seem to particularly enjoy.

I do feel a bit sorry for those who aren't in G5, but there's very little I can do about it and I'm currently in a don't-rock-the-boat mode, because while PvP is still a joke, the current arena is probably as good as it's ever going to get for me, where I don't have to waste my time on it. On the other hand, I hear Plarium is looking at doing changes to PvP, so I guess I should mentally prepare myself for the worst...

You don't even need a booster or TM booster  or spd aura lead to compete anywhere in Gold... I remember about two years ago A 280spd Arb was Mandatory for Gold 1.. and 280 was harder to achieve than it is now. Jumping to G1 from S4 is probably harder than all of gold, still. A lot of well built end game teams are lurking in S1-S4 then when you hit G1 and up it's 90% new accounts aka Freshies o_O 

But I don't really notice these things, so I could be wrong. when I fall off from time to time and have to climb from B1 up to G5 cause 329spd hellmut 🤷

Agreed. I tell my Clanmates who are struggling through Silver this all the time. Silver 4 is probably the worst bracket in the entire Arena.

Gold in general, but especially G5, is like Raid's version of a "Good-ole-boys Club". It's a pain to get in but once you're there you're "Golden"

pun intended. 😂

Sometimes I don't log in till mid morning Monday and my free defense has me in g4. There are all "real" teams but they are terrible and I can steamroll back to g5 np.

G5 does have a lot of free win teams but the "real teams" are worlds apart from even g4.

 Arena in Raid is weird. 

Everyone below Gold 5 is fighting like hell to get there. 

Everyone above Gold 5 is fighting like hell to advance or stay in Plat. 

Most of the people in Gold 5 are just chilling out. They are either farming medals for their Great Hall or maintaining for the 22% stat buffs. There's no real benefit to advancing to Plat unless PvP is your thing.  

I personally never even take a match unless it is against a 1-man defense. If I'm in a hurry to get my 5 daily matches for the quest out of the way, I pick the strongest team I see and exit out of all 5 matches immediately. 

The way I see it, if they have a proper defense then they are actually trying to advance. Why would I want to slow them down by beating them when there are plenty of people just chilling out like me with a weak 1-man defense?  

Some of us with maxed great halls leave full defense in because we only do the 5 per day.  Others are just a holes.  Though I certainly am also the latter, it is not the reason for a full defense.