Pro rank can be very... deceitful. Because by now, its meaningless. It doesnt include all the good players, nor does it include only good players, far from it.
The conditions have been loosened and now virtually any player that plays regularly, mostly on ranked, will eventually get there. Good players will get there with anything, decent players will get there with patience and bad players will get there with metadecks.
There are no trustworthy numbers on Gwent's total playerbase, but i wouldnt be surprised if more than half of the players who play mostly on ranked get to pro rank. It validates them and helps keeping them hooked in the game. Its like giving out a trophy to everyone so everyone's happy and feels like a winner.
I won't go deep into the ol' "Back in the days..." talk, but back in betas, getting to pro rank was actually challenging, i am sad to admit i had never done it, but not only was the competition fiercer and smarter, the system after a certain point required more wins (against skilled opponents) than losses to progress, which is something now you only find in high pro rank, above 2600MMR and fighting for top 200.
And then I remember watching by chance a couple of games of the Masters, only to witness the "legendary" players using always the same meta decks. And I thought: "It's a festival of the obvious, why have I invested so much time on this game?"
Gwent has a very low skill ceiling, despite the statements of tournament commentators who claim otherwise. I am not saying pro players aren't actually good, i am saying this game doesnt let them shine and demonstrate their skill and tactical thinking.
Most matches are decided by luck of the draws, even though those metadecks are already designed to minimize the influence of luck, prioritizing consistency and versatility.
Sadly, if you play cycle quests (and they require ranked matches), you get to Pro even against your will.
I think these cycles are the last attempt to draw players from casual into ranked, and judging by me and you alone, it seems to be working. It's yet another form of progression (its ridiculous how many we have by now - level/prestige, rank, journey level, cycle level) that would certainly work on casual play and i would not touch ranked otherwise, but you feel like you are missing out if you ignore it.
I already said to myself i wont bother getting to lv250 this cycle, i even hate the new cardback, but the draw of completing quests and building new decks is always appealing, at least to me.