There's already a perfectly fine ranking system - ELO. Nothing there needs to change.
In game leaderboards I guess would be cool, easier access or whatever. People who care about rank already know how and where to find it, it's just that some people want their epeen exposed to as many people as possible.
Honestly I think there's no valid reason for anything to change, what we have now works fine. Relic should spend time and energy on things that actually matter like new content (maps, redesigned commanders, new units, etc), balance, bug fixes. That sort of thing. if they did implement anything it would need to show at the end of the game replacing the silly prestige thing that we have now.
Really it's just a matter of people wanting other people to visually see who is "superior" by having some "cool" reward for being ranked high. Cool I guess... But irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. If you're good let your play speak for itself and others will decide that you're good. You don't need some visual indicator to show off to others.
Just my two cents.
You only think that cause you never really experienced coh1 ladders/rankings. It has nothing to do with showing off your epeen. Current system is just meh. Coh1 ranks really added to motivation to keep playing and getting better rank. Much better than current im ranked 189 or whatever.