Kzfarms:
I see it all the time..Use to have to win so many ranked games but not anymore free ride
For coin players, tiering up by level (for the first few tiers) has been that way for a long time. So, if there's a "free ride," it's been that way for quite a while now.
Here's a link to a thread from May 2018 (copy and paste of the relevant portion below link) in which WGTChampion addresses it:
http://www.wgt.com/forums/p/531116/3605103.aspx#3605103
"Also, on mobile we see a lot of players who only play in head to head games, and never touch a ranked round for some reason or another. Since coin rooms do not count as ranked rounds, their average doesn't drop.
For the first few tiers we have specific levels that will push the player to the next tier. This way their [sic] aren't any level 90 Hack players or anything like that."