One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of players starting new accounts on chess.com default to a rating of 800. These players might actually be much stronger than 800 but haven’t played enough games yet for their rating to settle. If a lot of people do this, it could pull down the average rating overall and make some ratings feel “off” compared to what you’d expect OTB.
Also, I think online chess tends to favour tactical players because I reckon lots of people spend time on puzzle rush or other tactics training. Even players with lower ratings might be better at spotting tactical shots in online games than you’d expect at the same rating OTB. It might also feel more noticeable in faster time controls, where quick pattern recognition often matters more than deeper positional understanding.
As for the rating system itself, I think online ratings are just fundamentally different from OTB. Online games are often played faster and in a more casual setting, so the ratings don’t always match up to what you’d see in a tournament. I’ve heard others say they feel the same way you do about online blitz being especially tricky to pin down.
Anyway, that’s just my opinion, and I could definitely be off base. Hope it helps even a little, though!
The rating system on here is whack. I've played a bunch of USCF Tournaments, rated around 1500. In good games based on G/40 or slower I can hold my own against the B Players and above before they grind me down or overplay me in the endgame. 1300-1500 can be a tough match if the person has the same skills as me or is ahead of me in progressing. < 1200 usually they blunder somewhere I can grind out a win. A couple times I might underplay but can usually get a draw at worst even if I somehow ended up a piece down.
Here, I laugh at the 800-1100 range. These guys are seeing tactical shots and defenses that they DO NOT SEE OTB. I know! I've played many OTB games. But like in Live Chess here I will play quick chess, blunder, know I've blundered but will be like "let's see if they find the blunder and a good way to exploit it" and 95% of the time they do. In 3 min blitz no less. This is just not realistic in OTB chess at that rating even in quicker time controls.
It's frustrating I can't hold 1300 in Blitz here b/c I keep losing to 800-1100 rateds. I know I use a lot of Dubious lines like the Latvian, Morra, Budapest, French e5 gambits but these guys are barely thinking and I'm getting outplayed in Middle/Endgame running out of clock time in some crazy positions.
And yet, I'll play a routine game here against a 1400-1600 who will somehow fall into the Budapest trap or some similar Nd3# variation of it or the Nf2# smothered mate combo (while the 800-1100 will somehow know to Sac the Rook to stay alive! MAKE IT MAKE SENSE!
PS> I report a lot of my games I suspect are cheating but on average per the emails I receive it looks like I face only 2-3 cheaters per day. So that can't explain it unless more just aren't getting caught.