Skill does matter as you can see this video from Scape211: https://youtu.be/Id7He112tU8?si=fQYbGVmhFHkIIXY3 first match he played. Scape211 and his teammate (which he calls "buddy" for some reason so i'm going to call him "buddy") play a CPC match against 2 players. Scape211 is 4k SP and "buddy" has 5k SP, the opponents had 6k SP and 7k SP. Yet Scape211 and "buddy" still won by a large mile, simply because they were way better than their opponents to the point that the power-advantage the opponents had didn't even work. If the opponents had the same SP as Scape211 and "buddy" then Scape211 and "buddy" would have vaporized them.
Does the matchmaking have problems? Yes.
But i understand the reason why they do skill-based-matchmaking and not hangar-based-matchmaking.
By the way, the matchmaking doesnt just only look at your win-rate, there are other factors like win-streak, we just dont know all of them. Probably because if we would know all factors we could fine more ways to exploit matchmaking.
Now about the bots, that they have stronger mechs and weapons (or atleast more in a hangar) than the players is kinda stupid. Cryo Launchers are assist weapons but the Cryos of bots hit way too hard. Tho we still wipe the floor with bots even tho they have stronger mechs and weapons. The biggest problem are the bots in FFA because they keep targeting the player snd double-team the player.
So, what you're saying is my SP of 1.2K can beat a 2.7K "player based" squad and bots just by skills?
Highlighting "player based" since I doubt that we really get to play with actual people in real time.