only responding to this specific point that i’ve seen from several people in the last day, who generally make other better points alongside it, but A, sbmm’s goal is to put you in lobbies with people who are casual like you, and B, no that does not preclude you getting stomped or someone dominating a lobby or whatever because 99% of players have extremely inconsistent performance and can drastically over or underperform - like you. if your goal is casual fun try to actually have the casual fun before you spin up a narrative for yourself out of inconsistent data points
consider also that the nostalgia for server browser only lobbies as opposed to sbmm is more of a nostalgia for A) the internet feeling smaller and more intimate (partly because you were younger then! but also yes how the internet has changed) and B) people (including you) not knowing how to play the game! these games have existed for a long time now and people don’t play them like they did 10 years ago. got nothin to do with sbmm
literally just xkcd 386’ing about offhand mentions of sbmm, because it’s good
