I feel there is a discrimination between first 50 players and the rest (not being able to know how good they are except an icon color).
If you really believe that numeric ranks are not very informative, then remove the ladders as well.
Also, when you mention the numeric rank can be calculated, I think the purpose of computers is to automate simple tasks.
And in the end what is the "official objective" regarding showing ranking/ladders? It is frustrating to get these back and forth changes without understanding the reason behind (and lets keep separate the underlying algorithm and information used for balancing, I think in that area the objective is "make the most balanced games")