I think the important part is, to get a rating, you have to play in a USATT sanctioned tournament. To have the rating actually reflect your level of play, you have to play in enough tournaments to have won and lost enough for the rating to be fairly accurate.
If you are rated 1800 and lose to someone with a rating of 1850, you will lose something like 6 points. I can't remember the exact number. If you lose to someone 1950, you may lose 2 points. If you lose to someone 2050 you won't lose any. If you lose to someone 1600 you will lose a lot more points. If you lose to someone 1400 you will lose even more points. I cannot remember the maximum number of points you can lose.
If you are 1800 and you beat someone 2200, and you don't lose to anyone lower than 2100, they will readjust your level up to about the level of the lowest level player you lost to.
So, if your rating was 1800 but the level was too high and you played and lost to every player lower than 1500 in a tournament, from the massive number of points you would lose, you would end up dropping to around that level.
Based on how you win or lose points, the idea is, if you play enough tournaments, and you are trying to play in brackets that you think reflect your level, over time, you end up with a rating that is close enough to accurate. Why do I say "close enough to accurate"? Because your level will change with time and the change won't just be linear. It will go up and down. And also, because, there will be certain kinds of players you play against that you do well against. And other kinds of players that you play against that you won't do well against.
Like, MOG plays with Mid Length Pips. A lot of players at the 1500 level play really poorly against those kinds of pips because they give balls that are not expected at 1500 level. at 1700+ players have much more experience playing against players with tricky rubbers. So, that advantage starts to disappear and then the pips player has to demonstrate more skill with those pips. The pips are still tricky, but the players you play against as the levels get higher, have more experience against different kinds of players.
I am given to understand that, if you have played fewer than 30 tournaments, it is not so likely your rating will actually reflect your level. The more tournaments you play, the more accurately your rating will reflect your level.
I think this is why Der_Echte is talking about how much money you have to give to USATT to get a rating that reflects your level.
By the way, in the videos I posted to show it is hard to determine someone's level from just looking at Video, in the video with Richard and Philippe, at the time Richard was approximately 2350 and Philippe was 2300. At the time of the video of Richard and Marcus, Richard was about 2250 and Marcus was about 2175. So, those three are exponentially better than anyone at a 2000 level. Richard's highest level was 2450. Philippe's highest level was about 2350-2400. They don't look great. But they are amazing players. If you know what to look for, you may be able to tell.
To me, the rally in the video that shows Tony Ma going from low level to over 2000, that starts at 1:44 in the video looks about like the rally MOG shows. Similar level of spin. The FHs in Tony Ma's video may have more power. But the BHs are not as solid. In that rally, it states that the tournament bracket is U1550 and his rating is 1285. The rally goes on for over 20 seconds. It may be worth watching.
MOG is probably a little higher level than that. I think Der may be close enough to accurate. But my point is, you really can't tell from looking. You have to play the matches to earn a rating. MOG plays in UK. He would have to go to the US and play in a bunch of tournaments to actually find out his rating.
But I think MOG's actual purpose in this thread, because he has posted an identical thread to this in the past, is to say: "look how well I am playing." And he is playing well.