It is asked: If there are great chess players, why are there not great boardgame players? In answer: Boardgames come in a bunch of kinds. Here's my experience with some:

Diplomacy definitely has good and bad players, though in a tournament being known as a good player ("He got a solo win last year!") is a bit of a liability. I have yet to do better than minor partner in a many-way tie in the Dip tournaments I've played in, whereas some people are in the running pretty much every year.

Titan seems to plateau. Experienced players almost always beat beginners unless the beginner gets a lot of coaching (and luck), but there is not a big difference among experienced players. You can polish your battleboard tactics, but in the long run it doesn't make as big a difference as masterboard luck. This is especially true with the larger numbers of players (4+) where 1 or 2 are usually eliminated early through no fault of their own.

Starfleet Battles has good players and bad players, and my impression of the tournament results is that upsets are actually pretty rare. In this case, however, a lot of the skill involves intimate knowledge of the very large rules set. I can sometimes beat my husband given a ship whose capabilities I know well (I'm not bad at the tactics, in other words) but with random ships he'll almost always win due to broader knowledge of esoteric rules. I note that the national tournament writeups still refer to rules surprises almost as often as tactical ones....

My husband has won every game of Arabana-Ikibiti we've ever played. I have no idea, so far, why this would be. I don't know if the game will respond to analysis or if it's mainly driven by the card draw.

If you design a game to keep a group of players, probably with mixed skill levels, amused, it may be a feature not to be too rewarding of skill. When I got good at chess I stopped being able to play with the rest of my family--I'd always win--which was good for my ego but not for the game as a social activity.

So I'd say it varies a lot by game. SFB and DIP certainly have "good players" well known (and feared) by those around them, whereas in many other games it seems hard to advance beyond "proficient".