Do yourself a favor and do not play this biased game.

Another week one player here, though I never took a break. Been here all along. And you're right in your observations. EA is a living nightmare. Respawn is not much better, though I'm sure that in many ways that's the fault of their EA overlords.

The matchmaking in the game is broken and for a lot of different reasons. But you can find a lot of newer, higher-population games that are as bad or worse. I've been playing shooters since 2001, and online multiplayer since Halo 2, and I've never seen one single game get matchmaking right, or really even anything like what I would call high-functioning. If the dev doesn't F up the matchmaking then the player base will. Apex currently is suffering from both problems.

But you pointed out the player distr. curve. I'm assuming you're calling it by that name intentionally and that's the name it has in unranked trios. Where, imo, there should not be a leave penalty. And you're right that a lot of players, myself included, look carefully at that data and will exit the match without compunction before it's even started. As they should. If Respawn can't or won't take matchmaking seriously then I applaud them at least for giving me the information I need to manage it myself. You're also right to point out that people will quit on a knock almost 90% of the time.* It is what it is. If you need to get away from that then you need ranked or Wildcard. And take it from me when I say that Wildcard's free and unlimited respawns (which are the only thing that will stop people from quitting) are on their way to the main game. Next season? The one after? I don't know. I don't know when they'll come, but they're coming. And yes, people will stay in matches. But it's also the final dumb-down of the game and when it finally does happen I'll shake my head at how far downhill this game has gone since season zero. I can list off dozens of changes from 26 seasons, none of which have made the game better - and I struggle to think of even one single change that I thought was an improvement.

*And here's where I defend a good chunk of the knock quitters. Yes, I know a lot of them are just poor sports, but also: a lot of the blame goes once again to the developer. Last season or this, can't remember which, they removed 70% of evo harvesters and probably just as many replicators. And replicators are the only feasible way (90% of the time) to get a downed player's banner. People know this, and they know the second they're knocked that the odds of a successful reentry to the match are almost zero. So they quit. That's Respawn and their new "engage or screw you" mentality. They've removed any viable non-combat option to advance in a match. So the question isn't, "Why do knocked players quit?" The question is, "Why would they bother to stay?"

    A few thoughts I have when you say these things are you talking about ranked play? I apologize if that seems like a stupid question but I am assuming yes. Either way, my own personal experience is for example about 3-4 days ago I was playing and my first game (ranked) I saw it was a two people playing together one on console one on PC (so i know they are partied up) and in my experience the friend usually isn't good enough to make up for his friends lack of ability and obviously there are exceptions. But this game was the norm and his friend ran off solo and died and his friend tried to help but it was a horrible position and obviously outnumbered. We ended up doing ok maybe top 8ish? I have a point, my next game I had 2 guys who just ran thru people. We ended up having 13 or 14 total KP and i think we came in 2nd that game. I know for a fact if you play enough games you will get people who if i'm being polite are "unskilled" and you will also get people who could play on a semi pro team and everything in between. 

Side Note:

  I do wish Apex would make a Duos ranked mode. I don't think it would hurt the team aspect (2 people is still a team) and I think it would draw a lot of good attention.