Does the rank system really determine your skill? Or is there more to it?

Yes and no. You're not reaching red or purple ranks if you're a complete potato. But, especially on the survivor side so much depends on who you get matched with. I'm a purple ranks survivor and feel like it's about right where I should be. I'm not a potato. But I'm not great either. Ultimately play time will determine more about your rank than skill will.

In a broad sense, higher ranked players are typically "better" than lower ranked players, but there is a lot of variation within ranks. I'm probably on the low end of red rank killers. There are a lot of killers with twice or three times as many hours in the game as I have even though we all make rank 1 each month. The ranks only go so high.

On the survivor side, I've run into SWF players that have a high escape rate in groups and....not such a high escape rate when I run into them solo. I can rank up as a survivor simply by saving twice and doing a gen or two, but I'm not great in a chase.

Rank can be an indicator of experience more than anything else.

I was red ranks last season's as survivor. Some killers were amazing and were so scary at predicting what my next move was. But then half the time I was getting killers who face camped. This is just my experience and it's different from anyone else's. But this also applies to the survivors as Well because some of them I was wondering how they even got past green. Oh and if you were wondering I'm on ps4!

I wouldn't say rank = skill

I have been playing this game since late July and I have been red rank after my first rank reset, so 3 out of 4 months (the first one I was learning the game) so, after one month of knowing absolutely nothing, just studying the game and playing it casually (I work full time I can only play maybe 2 hrs a day, and not every day) will get you to red ranks.

I'm not a potato, but I'm not good either, I'd say I'm pretty average, but I did study the game (only the survivor side) so I know the minimum work I need in order to be safe or to pip, and I try to do it every match.

Just knowing basic things like how many gens you need to do per match to reach iridescent or gold, and how many hook rescues you need to do, and try to not get hooked and run the killer without getting caught is what will get you to rank. You can be a potato and do 2 full gens by yourself and rescue 2 players and heal some others and be a scaredly Dwight hiding from the killer and you will guarantee to pip.

On the killer side, I'm not sure, I main survivor. The only thing I can say is that yesterday I played against a ranked 2 killer in coldwind farm who couldnt keep up with a chase, she disconnected because she couldnt catch us... So only based on that match she was pretty bad at rank 2.

So tl;dr, being a red rank does not guarantee you have skill.

ETA: play time, at least for me, is not a factor to determine your rank, as I said, I can only play maybe 2 hrs every other day, and I still manage to rank red..

Rank absolutely does not determine your skill in this game. I've been playing DBD on PS4 since August '18 and have about 1k hours (aprroximately, based on average play time per day, since console doesn't log time spent playing). I've been a rank 1 killer and survivor every season with the exception of my first month. Here is my most recent story of how rank means *almost* nothing. TLDR at bottom.

Last week I was playing solo queue survivor. I solo queue about 90% of my survivor games. Playing on Rotten Fields and I start working on a gen. Ruin. No big deal. I always work through it unless I'm having a particularly bad RNG with skill checks. I see a survivor get hit on my HUD. Ten seconds later, he's down. I'm guessing it's a Spirit with recovery addons considering how quickly he went down. Survivor gets hooked. I'm still working my gen (about 50% now). I see a second survivor get hit twice in less than 10 seconds. I abandon my gen and go for the save. As I'm unhooking, second survivor gets hooked. I see Ghostface in the distance, not coming for the first hook. These guys gave a Ghostface four hits and two hooks in less than 60 seconds (nobody got exposed). How?? I get the second unhook. We try to double heal, but second hook Sprint Bursts away, in the direction I saw the killer going. I heal first hook. I get a second gen to 50%, another survivor down. I go to rescue this survivor too, assuming the others are looking for Ruin. I find it on my way to the hook. Get the unhook and break Ruin. GF finds me on my way back to my gen. He chases me for around two minutes, in which time one gen is FINALLY completed. I'm rescued and don't bother to heal. At this point I've accepted our fate. I pop the first gen I started. People are dropping like flies now, getting exposed. I rescue my fourth survivor now and heal them. I pop the second gen I had started. So now three gens have popped, two I did completely, one done while I was chased. I've rescued four survivors and healed two. One survivor goes down, death hook. Another goes down, death hook. I have my third gen 90% done when my last teammate gets exposed. He goes down at 98%. I pop it, hoping he has Adrenaline, but he doesn't. GF gets the death hook and I hide in a locker to avoid BBQ. I run to the opposite corner of the last hook and happen to find hatch. I ended with 30k points (only survival not maxed), next closest survivor had 11k points. Against a GHOSTFACE.

TLDR - Rank 1 solo vs Ghostface, had four unhooks, two full heals, broke Ruin, did three gens completely solo, other gen popped during my chase, which was the only one to last longer than 30 seconds, got hatch, finished with 19k more than next closest survivor. Rank doesn't matter.

Rank, generally speaking, is an indication of monthly activity. That being said, the more you play the better you get. So, it kind of goes hand in hand in a sense, but you have to take it with a grain of salt. This game has been around for a long time, and there are many degrees of skill level.

Um, I Cant believe everyone is saying No??? YES IT DOES. You DONT level down unless your making big bloodpoints in the game...which means you have to be good at this game to do so. At one point, I wasnt very good at this game and I couldnt get past level 15. It wasnt till I cracked down and got better that I became a level 4 and it's because I've worked my ass off to get it . And when I play against players who are higher rank like in the green, they are no where near as good in their gameplay. Sorry. Not to mention, as your leveling down closer to rank 1. It gets harder because you have to start earning BIGGER bloodpoints to rank down.