If your rank is the same as hers, you wouldn't be getting wide matches. Wide matches are specifically for teams of people with a very wide distribution of rankings, therefore the name "wide". So finish your placements and see what you get. But for me and my friends, even if we get wide matches, the longest we've ever waited was 8 minutes for a game.
People also used RHDN as a news source to find out about new hacks and translation releases, and it was the best resource for doing that. And it sounds like it still will be going forward, so... I disagree with you on that.