Stuck playing peak Diamond/Plat lobbies in Silver… how do I lower my MMR?

I was at Gold 1 before the rank reset. I play competitive but mostly for fun, not too seriously. I’m… okay at the game, mediocre at best—HS% around 15%, ~230 ACS, KD 1.01. That’s pretty mid-tier in my opinion.

My friend is hard-stuck Bronze, so I’ve never cared much about ranking up without them. Then the rank reset drops me to Bronze 1. Since I’ve played a fair bit before, I rose to Silver 3 pretty quickly.

Here’s the thing: there is zero difference in difficulty between the games I played at Gold, Bronze, or Silver.
Out of curiosity, I installed a tracker to see what was going on—and… I’m playing in peak Diamond-Plat lobbies, especially players who peaked just last act! This is diabolical. I hardly ever see “real” Silvers.

I understand EOMM's focus is (and should be?) on engagement, not fairness as much. But to what degree lol? Smurfs are kind of expected in lower ranks, so I won't whine about that. The real problem is when the entire lobby is cracked. It doesn’t even feel like matchmaking anymore. ;-;

I don’t even know if I have a question here, but:

• How do I lower my MMR so I can get back to just casual, mid-skill games?
• Is this just how it is if your hidden MMR is higher than your rank?
• Or should I just move on and try a different game for fun? lmao

Even if someone says “stop whining and just rank up,” it’s not really my choice at this point. I would rank up just to see these higher lobbies officially, but clearly that’s not happening with the way matches are being made right now.

So yeah—anyone else stuck like this? Or, alternatively, hit me with some fun game recs to try while Valorant sorts itself out.