Not all friction is a bad friction. Committing towards something is actually good and forces someone to think
On a surprising note though, you are not wrong when it comes to people being stuck at lower scores. It is weird to see that.
IELTS is still an easy exam though. CLB9 in IELTS is still a steal compared to other pathways. It'll be a lot harder for people to survive in Canada if they are going to struggle with IELTS CLB9.
CLB9 is literally:
1. Right letter format + Right paragraph format + no grammatical mistakes + diverse word usage. We literally write emails at work and try to not have mistakes. This shouldn't be too hard. If you do Right letter format + right paragraph format + some diverse word usage - you'll still get 7 easily.
2. Being able to talk with someone and discuss topics in English. Don't we discuss complex topics at words in English. Should be unlikely to not land 7 or 8 in English. Make sure one doesn't stop talking and try to speak with a little fluency.
I see that people have more issues with listening and reading where time management could hurt a few. But I guess even the minimum in #1 and #2 are too much to expect. Honestly, that would really hurt their chances of success or even decent quality of life. I already see people throughout the world where they struggle to participate in meetings, communicate their ideas, etc and as a result don't go beyond an IC role.
Edited: I thought you were talking about French lol initially.