Game is no longer fun to play in competitive

I'm a 32 year old guy who likes to play the game after work to relax a bit cause I like the concept, the art, the agents. The game is excellent and really fun to play, until you start playing competitive. First of all - I have no problem losing. A loss where both teams game their all is a really fun experience as you can feel the competitive aspect.

I've been playing since release and I've had a lot of good time playing and some occasional bad games, but in the last couple of months it had become unbearable. The amount of games when we have toxic players that fight and scream at each other is countless. Not to mention that in my last 10 games in 6 of them we had a player on our team be AFK and/or leave the game in the first half.

I understand that playing unrated can be less stressful but I want to play a mode where you actually get rewarded for winning, that's why I always played competitive games. I realize that I can mute toxic players, and I do that pretty often, but it's not a permanent solution.

I know that the devs constantly do updates to make these problems go away, but I think there need to be harsher penalties for toxic player and for players that abandon competitive games. Cause yes - it is just a game, but it's also wasting my time that I won't get back. When I play a really cool competitive match, no matter the outcome at the end, I feel emotionally rewarded for the time I spent playing, because of the adrenaline, the unexpected twists in the game, etc. When I play for 45 minutes just for someone to leave after we are able to make a remake, or to listen/read hateful messages makes me feel like I wasted said time.

I honestly considered to stop playing the game,but I've spent a lot of time and a decent amount of money on it and it feels like throwing that into the trash. What do you guys think is a good solution to finding a balance between playing the competitive mode without feeling like wasting time, cause this is getting ridiculous. I just checked and in my last 15 games we have 9 games when our team finished with 4 or 3 players.

I don't know how much this matters, but I'm in silver/gold lobbies (bouncing between the two for said reasons).

I really want to continue playing the game but recently it started feeling like a waste of time.