Dude your point applies to me in ESEA, im not as good as many of the players on there. I watch them and learn from them. Its just the added bonus of more consistent servers
But that only works (obviously not the more consistent servers bit) if the people you are playing with are actually normal people, who don't just go omg noob when you make a mistake and take the 2 seconds to point out what you did wrong rather than just chucking a wobbly.
I actually agree that playing against people of a higher skill level will make you learn more quickly because your mistakes are punished where they might not be at lower levels. But having a load of adults act like 4 year olds when you make a mistake and just say you suck is of no help at all.
Take long a on dust 2 as ct, let's say Mr noob just casually wonders around the corner and gets nailed by a t at long doors, given a load of abuse all that person will learn is never go round the corner. Pointing out to them that with certain spawns the t can get there first so it's an idea to flash smoke or pre fire is usually a half decent idea and may teach them something, or at least encourage them to go and watch some videos and learn themselves, rather than just give them dogs abuse.
At the end of the day, silvers are generally just people new to the game, and actually without a steady influx of new people the game will die and we all loose, so is it really that hard to not be an ass hat to them?
At the sort of level anyone on here is ever going to be at its just a game, yes be competitive, yes strive to improve, but I don't understand why so many seem to feel the need to be so bloody rude to noobs, when compared to some we will always be noobs and make lots of mistakes.