Well, if the (fast) majority of matches are not close, it’s clearly not strict.
And it also doesn’t limit the individual skill gaps towards a very small one, since there is almost always someone who clearly outskilled and who is clealy underskills everybody else. I have had matches where the gap is from Onyx to Gold-2 during peak hours. That clearly isn’t strict.
Well, it is based of the H3 one, since it’s an (supposed) improvement of that same SBMM-system: trueskill. Infinite has trueskill 2.0, wich is based on the same functions, but supposed to be better at it.
If you want to argue that it doesn’t function properly (at least in Infinite) and that leads to unbalanced matches, i would definitely agree with you.
The word “this” can be used in multiple ways. It could point to a specific delivery of that system, but also to the system in it’s entirety. The way you talked gave me the impression you meant the latter.
I thought it was introduced with H3, but i stand corrected here. Although you didn’t have to be so agressive here, since if H2 did or didn’t have SBMM wasn’t even a point of mine. My point was that H3 had SBMM and was the most popular halo-game. And Menke seems to indicate that H3’s SBMM was very tight in this quote of his: " I have seen zero evidence that matchmaking tightly on Halo 3’s skill system leads to quitting".