It's not that skill doesn't matter. It's just that if you have two equally skilled pilots against each other, if one is in an noupgrade ship and the other in a mastered ship, the one in the mastered ship will win everytime. And putting people who are just starting out in a match with people who are mastered is counter productive because where is the fun in getting creamed every time you spawn?
If I'm flying with my guildies who do Starfighter, we do pretty well because we can use teamwork and voice chat. If you are queing solo and don't have a group of regulars, you're going to SUCK. Not many people can deal with banging their head against a brickwall for very long.