As far as I know, the players are distributed along ranks kind of naturally into bronze, plat, etc. Like everyone starts at bronze and then goes up based on wins. Riot downgrades you if you're inactive, but otherwise there's no limit on the number of people in any given rank.

The only reason a person gets stuck in silver is because they don't win games against people with similar win/loss records. In bronze through gold into lower platinum, winning is largely based on mechanics with moderate decision making. Platinum and above is all about decision making because players have all plateaued on mechanics.

For example, a bronze player won't always land their skill shots. In diamond, players won't miss unless the other person has a blink/dash/flash. The bronze player is firing off whenever their skill is ready. The diamond player will prefer not to take the shot unless they know the other player has their dodge on cooldown.

So if you're playing League enough to put it on your resume and grinding ranked, it's not the flex you think it is if you're just now making it to gold. That just says your reaction speeds and typing accuracy aren't even past the bare minimum lmao