I can weigh in a bit here. For context, I'm the tech lead and project manager for our Gameplay Integrity team which focuses on game client and server performance. I am Plat1 and primarily play on a 144hz 2k monitor. So I'm not a top tier player. I can't give firsthand advice on how to get to that next level; cause if I knew I'd do it.
So first off I want to address the "do I need X hardware to reach Y skill level". I would say hard NO. I believe that pros and high level players typically having great hardware is more correlation than causation. High level players are willing to dedicate an immense amount of time and effort to get to that level. It makes sense that they'd also be willing invest monetarily. The hardware isn't making them good it's the dedication, the dedication is the thing leading them towards getting the best hardware.
Does hardware/ping/etc matter all? Hard YES. I've seen plenty of research that shows the same player on better hardware will perform better. However, I haven't seen any research that shows it being drastic. My general sense of it is that from a base of 60hz/60ms you don't see massive improvement. Maybe 10-25%, for some people it might be a bit more but I don't think it's going to revolutionize your play. For comparison, just starting a practice regiment might increase your performance by 100% in just 3-4 weeks.
Finally we can look a little bit at the hard numbers to get an idea of your numeric disadvantage.
I think 185ms is something like 90th percentile in reaction times so lets use that as a baseline.
144hz is a good standard. 240hz exists
60hz = 16.7ms
144hz = 6.9ms
DiffFrom60hz = 9.8ms
240hz = 4.2ms
DiffFrom60 = 12.5ms
35ms is a good ping to standardize around. It's common metric we use to determine people who fall into the category of having the best ping.
60ms = 60ms
35ms = 35ms
Diff = 25ms
Total Diff from 60hz/60ms -> 144hz/35ms = 34.8ms
This ends up being around 18.8% of your raw reaction time.
You can get a bit more raw performance increase from the smoother interpolation giving you an accuracy boost as well but I don't think it's going to be super massive.
Total diff from 60hz/60ms -> 240hz/35ms = 37.5ms
This ends up being around 20.3% of your raw reaction time.
So there you have it a bit of the reasoning around the whole thing. Is it important? Well for sure if you've maxed out on your personal skill level all you might have left is to get another 10-25% boost from getting better hardware. Is it going to be the difference between Diamond/Immortal player? In my opinion, no way, the skill differences between those players is far more massive than 10-25%. As anecdotal proof all my high diamond colleagues can still wipe me off the face of the planet easily if they're on 60hz and I'm on 144hz.
In the short term, I'd recommend checking your input latency metrics in game and potentially tweaking your settings to reduce it. I've even seen some overlay or stream setups drastically increase input latency when they're turned on. Even if the frames aren't rendering, you're still sending your inputs to the server at the framerate of your client so doing things to boost your FPS can help.
Sorry for the essay. All this being said, I love the feel of playing on a 144hz monitor myself. I tend to get motion sick in first person games and the high refresh rate helps me feel more comfortable. There is definitely a difference and it's noticeable and a good thing to pursue overall.
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