Players above a certain level should not be allowed in "Orientation" matches.

Apex Legends has a constantly moving SBMM system. Once you complete your orientation matches, the system guesses what your SBMM should be and tries to assign you what it considers a fair estimate.This estimate is quickly adjusted after 1 or 2 matches to what your true SBMM rating should be. Your performance is then re-evaluated after every match, in every game mode. Player level realistically has very little to do with Apex's matchmaking, in fact, it doesn't factor into it at all.

At player level 8, it's likely that you've already completed your orientation matches and several other matches on top of that. It isn't outside the realm of possibility that:

1. Your SBMM rating is higher than average thus causing you to draw in better players in your matches due to how the matchmaking system works and

2. Just like how you were playing in orientation matches with your wife, a veteran player could also be doing the same with someone else.

Honestly, this is probably the worst competitive shooter to attempt to introduce someone to that isn't already great at FPS games. It has an extremely high skill ceiling and has been around long enough for a majority of the playerbase to have mastered the mechanics, legends, and weapons in the game

This doesn't even account for the game actively encouraging people to smurf, and streamers to do rookie to master/pred challenges on new accounts just so they can stomp genuinely new players to the amusement of their audience.