Annie
Even with total time scoring a good shooter with a SDQ stage can and will beat middle of pack and lower shooters. With total time scoring for a 24 target stage DQ a shooter will have a time of 150 seconds for the stage. This is determined by targets x miss penalty + 30 seconds (24/targets x 5/sec) + 30/sec = 150/sec.
A rank scored match will add points per stage which is max number of shooters in the match, 50/shooters = 50 points added, 100/shooters = 100 points added. This variability per match seems to be the issue with rank scoring.
With no SDQ I haven't seen rank scoring move a shooter very many places above a faster shooter usually one place. Even total time in a big match, 150 seconds on a stage will move you a long way down when your a middle of pack shooter in the 30 to 40 second per stage range (lot of shooters in this time range), but a top 10 to 20 shooter with stage DQ will still beat a lot of people in a big match using total time. So what you've experienced will happen regardless of scoring method used.
Best advice is to hit all targets as fast as you can with no penalties and don't sweat the scoring method. This is way I feel about the different scoring methods to some seems to be an issue.
Whiskey Hayes