The money is micro transactions and the whales have $7k gpus...

Everyone else is just fodder so the pay to win accounts have someone to feel better than.

COD a while ago got caught out for juicing the matchmaking odds right after you buy a new skin. Didn't matter what you bought or how much. A purchase made your next couple lobbies be filled with scrubs on one side, and you and some above averages on the other.

After X amounts of games it wore off, and since those games pushed you up in the normal metrics, you're now in lobbies above your skill level. So even if you get a "fair" game, you're going to do badly, until you buy a skin again or lose to your actual skill level.

That's why everyone started complaining about COD matchmaking, even if you bought nothing, everyone was on the same micro transaction maximizing rollercoaster.

A cynic would say that's why it went free on Xbox, they need a population of players to make the whale milking work. Even if those people only fire it up a few hours a month and never buy anything, getting matched with someone above your skill level who just bought a stupid skin makes you the product they sell to the whales.