The skill difference between top players aren't very drastic in Valorant imo.
It's hard to confidently say who the top 5 players are as all that's required is for a player to change team, and boom. The guy went from arguably a top 30 players to a top 5 (Ofc it's not as simple as a team change but you get the idea). T3xture is a prime example of that.
His performance in GE wasn't terrible but he wasn't anything impressive. Now in GenG he's been performing crazy good and very consistently.
But I guess the theory does apply in a way that each winning team tends to have at least one player who performs insanely well. The ability to win points with clutch 1v3 situations or starting of a round with an instant pick or two.
Players like T3xture, Meteor, Aspas, Zekken, Leo, Derke, Chronicle, Demon1 and more.