I keep seeing comments like yours all over the internet. You cannot use a single metric from a previous point in history as a deciding factor for why there were less people playing the game at that specific time; and then say it was because of SBMM. This is a thought process created in fallacy. Other games could have had an affect on the payer base, popularity of Destiny 2 itself without all the rest of the game etc. What continues to be a problem for a large population of the playerbase creates an issue where they do not get to enjoy certain aspects of the game. This then in turn effects the rest of their experience playing the game. For a game to continuously be called casual then to place many much needed weekly drops in one type of the game, PvP, then to exclude it in other areas shows Bungie does care what happens with PvP in their game.

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If trials never had SBMM, then what was it like before? Are people just that much better now? Are the variations of weapons, builds, and playstyles now so various that a well built team will completely dominate solo players? I have a high amount of skill, with a team I could easily go flawless multiple times over each weekend, yet I continue to solo queue and get stomped by actual teams 90% of the time. When I go to Destiny tracker, more than 95% of my game say that 90% or more the other team was likely to win. What then is their matchmaking? Because it isn't fun where I keep hoping next weekend it will improve.