Low ping advantage is clearly a thing of the past.
Please let me share my thoughts despite my poor English.
Imagine being in charge of COD multiplayer trying to develop a game for literally everyone. From the hardcore - old school gamer to the casual gamer. What would you put? Loud footsteps, insanely low TTK, safe places, SBMM, easy challenges, etc....What makes you thing connection quality is out of the equation? Probably nothing. If a 20ms ping gamer could dominate every lobby, the game (and the cash flow) would collapse within a few months.
I gave up, long time ago, trying to manipulate my connection. I have my XBOX plugged in my mediocre router and I play the game. Some times I do well and I have fun, some times my @ss is kicked hard. I can live with that.