February 2021 - last edited February 2021
I actually did exactly your "first alternative" not so long ago. A friend, who hasn't played a competitive FPS once in his life, wanted to try Apex and asked me to help him get familiarized with the game so I created a Smurf just to play with him (I am not particularly proud of smurfing but this is unfortunately the only way you can play with an actual "noob" friend). I got like to lvl 20 or something to play in the noob lobbies with a K/D of like 6 and now the account is back in the normal queue and my matches feels EXACTLY as stacked, or rather NON-STACKED, as for my main (2.4 K/D). So no "pred/master only lobby" or anything like that....
And btw, I DO think there are algorithms that affects the matchmaking but I think its more based on premade formations (solo, duo or full 3-man premade) than skill.