This is an interesting topic to be honest.
I think that in the end roleplaying a character who for instance is a recently graduated capsuleer who's middle aged (30-40) and has a solid history as a merc or navy ground pounder beforehand is perfectly acceptable in my opinion. So long as that character recognises that they're new to the capsuleer scene and that they have been effectively relegated to the bottom of the food chain.
One thing I love in Eve is watching how players, their characters and their relationships develop. Reputation always tends to make itself in eve over a period of time. I mean, when I first started, Verone was a disgruntled low ranking Federal Officer who'd been through a messy court martial and decided to walk away from the Federation, seeing no other option but exile from his home. He's come a long way since then as a Gurista loyalist.
In terms of what's seen as "bad ass", I'm sure that a mission runner who works for the Federation Navy, has +9.8 standings to a whole host of Federal corporations, and +9 to the Federation will be seen by the average Federal baseliner as a hero to the Federation and valued contracted asset to the Federal war machine.
In the same respect that capsuleer will be looked at as being low threat to most other capsuleers, someone who basically runs around as a bitch to their chosen faction, squashing bugs and taking out the garbage.
It's all a matter of perception really, we'll see another capsuleer completely different to what a baseliner does.
Anyway, killboards are a terrible way to gauge "skill" much of the time. You can determine 1) does this person solo a lot and 2) perhaps, what are they likely to be flying? A good k/d ratio solo is sometimes an indicator of skill, but, as stated above... see Lukka.
This basically.
By that logic, suicide gankers who nab 20b isk marauders are scary because of the sheer amount of stuff they blew up.
Hey, those guys ARE scary
I've only ever lost one ship to them.
I loved that crane, and the fortune it was carrying in datacores. Fuckers.