I really appreciate all your efforts, I really do! (This is also why I am a contributor, despite no longer playing online myself.)
Having said that, I believe you only tried to fix it and there still is significant room for improvement.
In fact, the situation is significantly worse than I initially thought!
I only learned after I made my initial statement, that differences in playing strength are simply ignored below 24 kyu.
If this is true (and I’m afraid it really is), then this is entirely outlandish in my eyes. (Sorry for the harsh words.)
I have worked with rating systems a lot (and I mean: A LOT), I try to convey the beauty of chess (for decades) and Go (for years now) to beginners and for me one of the most important aspects for someone new to the game is to not let them think they are stupid and to not let them play with/against someone who is significantly above their level.
I can not even begin to comprehend why a game server would lump everyone below a certain level together into one pool. It is like saying “Below a certain strength the server is happy to create pairings that will absolutely make no sense whatsoever and frustrate everyone involved.”
Again, sorry for my emotions but this is super frustrating for me.
Does chess.com make the same mistake? Of course not! They certainly don’t want to frustrate their (potential) customers!
I did search for a beginner on the server yesterday and found JoCatz.
He/she played 10 rated 9x9 games yesterday. I briefly looked at the games and I believe 9 of the 10 games didn’t make any sense before they even started, because the opponents were playing on an entirely different level and were just eating JoCatz alive.
How much fun did JoCatz have yesterday? Close to zero I would imagine.
Will he/she ever come back? Who knows.
Please fix this. Please respect the playing strength of beginners and pair them against players with similar level.