Why does "There needs to be a way to distinguish players by skill", at least visibly to other players?
In my mind, as it is currently, there is no actual benefit to visually showing threat level and it just leads to
prejudices, name calling, hackusations, etc.
I have no problem showing a player their own threat level or some other sort of statistical indication of their performance compared to other active players. Like a performance rating or something. It could even be a daily rating, weekly rating, monthly rating, etc. I think the rating should be character based though because progression level in regards to access to mods, weapons, etc can have an impact, big or small, on match statistics and outcomes.
As an example, if I am using a low progression level character against a team with high progression level characters who have access to car surfer, explosive weapons, etc, I end up at a disadvantage either small or great depending on the mission and stage. I am not complaining about this match up, but it does impact the stats and possibly the overall outcome of the mission.