It's very easy to keep increasing your knowledge without actually getting any better. The reason is that you are only as strong as your most detrimental weaknesses. If, for example, you have a weakness involving playing too impulsively and not considering your opponent's checks, captures, and threats, and if this weakness is how you lose most of the games you lose, then any improvements that don't directly address that weakness won't help much, if at all.
Think of a car with a flat tire. You can turbocharge the engine and make all kinds of improvements, but as long as the tire is flat, it's still limited to a low speed, no matter what else you do.
It's very easy to keep increasing your knowledge without actually getting any better. The reason is that you are only as strong as your most detrimental weaknesses. If, for example, you have a weakness involving playing too impulsively and not considering your opponent's checks, captures, and threats, and if this weakness is how you lose most of the games you lose, then any improvements that don't directly address that weakness won't help much, if at all.
Think of a car with a flat tire. You can turbocharge the engine and make all kinds of improvements, but as long as the tire is flat, it's still limited to a low speed, no matter what else you do.