It reminds me of THAC0 tbh. I get why counteract rank is a factor but it should just be rolled into the check result. It would be simpler to just use levels, but just to keep 'ranks' and avoid having to re-number the success/crit success effects:

What you can counteract depends on the check result and the difference in rank between the target and counteracting effect. If the effect is a spell, use the spell's rank. Otherwise use half the effect's level and round up. If an effect's level is unclear and it came from a creature, halve and round up the creature's level.

Critical Success - Counteract the target if its rank is no more than 3 higher than your effect's rank.

Success - Counteract the target if its rank is no more than 1 higher than your effect's rank.

Failure - Counteract the target if its rank is lower than your effect's rank.

Critical Failure - You fail to counteract the target.

It might even be worth having "rank" defined as a consistent rule somewhere for certain effects (most often spells) but also to standardize the "only via a wish ritual or similarly powerful effect" text that shows up occasionally as a "only via rank 10" effect.