How do you think Apex should be played?

@swift07BR is a competitive format by design. Only 1 team in 20 can win. Whether or not you lean into that fully or just play for the memes is up to you.  It's all in your attitude.

The horrific SBMM is what makes it brutal for noobs and lesser skilled players. How much fun is getting melted in milliseconds then first time you run into anyone not a noob? You spend too much time in the lobby and queueing up instead of playing. When most of your time in a First Person Shooter is doing everything else except shooting, that sucks!

Playing casually where you just goof off with some friends isn't really a fit for Apex BR either.  You really need continuous respawning games like Battlefield for that so you just jump back in quickly. Control LTM is better for that though.

@Unitee01

"the game is geared towards aggressive play"

This is because the shooter player base skews "young and dumb" and craves action above all else, not because aggression is an inherently desirable quality in a player. The dev knows this and actively perpetuates the mindset. Because it is the smarter way to play? I don't think so, but this is a question everyone has to answer for themselves.

"placement is a reward for surviving while actively engaging in gun fights and eliminating teams"

This is rank-think, and a justification for aggressive play, something aggressive players shouldn't feel the need to justify. Unless their less aggressive buddies have higher win rates.

"Most abilities compliment [aggression]." Please correct the paraphrase if it isn't accurate.

This is entirely in the eye of the beholder. I find that, for the most part, abilities are what you make of them. An aggressive player will find ways to use them aggressively, and a more circumspect player will find ways to use them to make aggressive players pay for their impulsiveness.

"All the game's trailers show it as well."
"We have badges that reward high kills and high damage."

Sell to your audience (see "young and dumb" above).

"Survival can be manipulated, at least in pubs, hence why I consider it a meaningless statistic on it's own."

You're right. In and of itself, survival is meaningless no matter how it might be weighted in ranked. What matters is winning and squads who routinely die in a hot drop are automatically disqualified from winning. Yes, you have to be able to win a gun fight in this game, but if you can't survive until you get to the only gun fight that matters, the last one, then all your crack shots and recoil control and hard-won loot and teamwork are just practice. You have to win. On whatever terms the game lays out for you. Discounting survival because it isn't glamorous is a big mistake.

IMO, treating gun fights as a means to an end is, in my experience, a winning mind set. Treating gun fights like entertainment, as if they're the whole game, or the only part of the game that is fun or that matters, is why so many people actively suck at this game.