Well, it is a ranking system - but as you wrote not regarding skill but regarding online attendance with some extra that we're not able to judge.

Also I'm not able to rate if an 40 something rank player is a good venom or phantom player. I just know, except for those campers, that he/she is online often. That has positive side effects IMO.

Anyway, for me it's just another goal to reach anytime soon. After going for ultimate ship geek (100k for each ship) I slowly achieved rank 40 or so. Interestingly I improved a lot after that experience. Though, I lost a little bit motivation. But now I found another one ...