This would mean that if the number next to 'ranked beatmaps' on your profile is a multiple of 5, you can qualify your next map without a spread. Alternatives, like 'every 10th,' are options too.

-----

a few points in favor

1. mappers could put more effort and time into a single diff instead of making others ones or arranging GDs. Think the quality we've seen of the best 5+ minute projects, but now it can be done on songs under 5 minutes too.
2. a similar historical precedent exists in the form of the approved category, for anyone who was around back then
3. there will most likely be the same amount of maps getting pushed. some people may rank stuff faster to get to the 5th map, in return making up the diffs lost on the 5th.
4. maps could be ranked from mappers who otherwise don't have time or interest to push them. for example, rrtyui's recent two maps could be ranked as gds on sets with only one other diff.

a few points against

1. it could feel unfair to mappers who have many ranked sets already.
2. it could technically allow a solo 10 star diff on a 30 second song. that said, if such a diff wouldn't be ranked with a spread, it would probably wouldn't be ranked without one either.

It doesn't really make sense to give some random maps special treatment just because they happen to be someone's 5th or 10th ranked map. Spread rules exist for a reason and disregarding them in arbitrary cases goes against their very purpose which is making sure that all ranked maps offer a basic set of difficulties (depening on length).
All the "points in favor" seem rather insignificant and even if they might be valid I don't see why they should apply to some maps but not others, that's just inconsistent. The spread rules are already lenient enough for mappers and anyone with 5+ ranked maps should be able to make a complete mapset either by mapping several diffs themselves or by getting GDs so I really don't think this is necessary or beneficial at all.
And frankly I do think that such a change would lead to some people trying to "abuse" it by ranking a single diff 10* map or a mapset with easy/normal as the highest diff on a song that supports higher difficulties which is probably something the community doesn't like or agree with.

no because i swear to god some mapper out there is gonna rank a 30 second single diff map of harumachi clover

Needlessly complicated attempt to remove spread rules.

But why? I don't see this as reasonable.

spread exist for "newer" player to enjoy playing their favorite songs without require impossible skill to hit and follow the rhythm of highest diff. And mapper(s) already get enough leniency in term of spread based on the length of the song, so theres no point to decrease the criteria even more, especially give literally random map special treatment by ranking only 1 diff on less than 5 minutes song

iirc Approved category is for beatmap that has absurdly big score points so player cant get any ranked score by just playing those said maps (and iirc back then leaderboard use scores instead of pp). for now, Approved section is quite similar to ranked

mapping is slow, sure. but ranking beatmap can be more slower than making full spread because it involve RNG-ish on map getting accepted by bn, especially when counting bn mod, recheck, and qualify (even when bn do "circlejerk", it still quite slow). so idk why u point that it can be rank faster

and if you are not interested in making spread, or cant make one, you can just ask for gd(s) to other people so you can have less burden, easier for you, and sometimes much quicker. or if you dont want to make any spread, the workaround and "non recommended" method is by making a song compilation of your fav's song that you want to map

also, asking gd(s) to other ppl have quite good side effect of become more social and can increase the knowledge of mapping world, so you will not alone doing stuff (and when bored, play with friends!)

tldr: basically what haruki said and with some addition and with slightly neat formatting!!!

in the end, i pretty much against this proposal because it simply have no reason to why giving some maps special treatment just because its from mapper with x amount of ranked map (ppl are hardly visit x mapper userpage just to see those kind of thing, they just download and play the map), and current rules and ranking criteria does help mapper handle with the required spread for x amount of length

??

If you can't make a complete set by any means, just ask other mappers to make guest difficulty. So long as your contribution is the same or more than any GD mappers (not even combined, just make sure each GD mapper's contrib is not more than yours), then it's rankable by rules.

I don't see this proposal to be beneficial for community, especially with existing rules being leninent enough for mappers who can't make full spread maps to fit Ranking Criteria.

circumventing the RC as a form of a "reward" won't be happening anytime soon.