Ranked choice is one of those policies that people on the internet and the academy are really into that is less rosey in practice. I’ve seen a number of elections where a candidate wins without a clear mandate and a lot of people have a sense of confusion about the winner. The psychological aspect is never studied in the theoretical literature. The main candidates get a lot of coverage and are naturally more polarizing. Down ballot candidates seem less extreme just because nobody knows them. People who don’t care that much will read “democrat I haven’t heard anything bad about” to be a calm centerist, when they could just be a second runner who is actually a bit insane. Maybe if people were more familiar with this voting scheme it would be better, but given that the media/politico elites who should be well versed in these topics have trouble coordinating media coverage and campaigns accordingly, I am not so sure that it is an easy change.