I've been having the same damn problem. I invested heavily into cards before CL dropped, just to see my account value go to shit, but I am unable to take advantage of my favorite old setups to get out of Bronze league easily. I spend a lot of time after each season ends burning my ECR down to almost nothing to claw out of Bronze (and fighting only BOTS the entire time) and then can't reap the benefits of getting that sweet sweet beginning of season DEC with a decent capture rate.
So, like you, I will stick with this game out of stubbornness and hopefully something will change.
That sucks. Let's hope there will be changes jn the future that will change this for the better 🤞