I don't really seek out players I don't know. Either my friends play or I don't. I have been lucky in the past having a group of motivated fans of a game and being able to play regularly with them, but not all collected the models. Two of the longest groups I had were in upstate NY and out in Texas. The NY one actually was great because we didn't have all that much to do during winter if we weren't doing winter things, and we'd camp out all night in someone's basement playing Epic. The next group I had was in Texas and they just loved Epic, then 40k when I introduced that.
Both groups had issues interpreting rules here and there with every game, and some arguments got frustrating, and the with the Texas group we decided on keeping a notebook to refer to any house rule we decided on if the rules weren't clear. This was all before the age of the internet and readily available FAQs. It never occurred to us that we could just call GW.
That being said, we did the best we could what we had, and just had to deal with broken models or rules. We typically tried to counter them with more opposing models lol. I had a friend int he Texas group show up to play 40k 2nd edition with 4 Bloodthirsters! We were like holy crap but gave it a go anyway. It was an epic event. We had a Terminator unit wiped out in the first round of that game too. But we also had a bunker with a devastator squad who managed to kill all but one of the Bloodthirsters before it reached the bunker and destroyed it. Can't remember the rest of the game, nor who won, but in that setting things were loose and fun. I imagine in a competitive setting things probably wouldn't be. I think people spend far more time on the modeling part than they do the playing part, and hate to see that time invested in something perform badly on the table or just not match up well, and then get frustrated. I don't like losing too much either, but so long as the spirit of the game is fun, then I don't care. I like epic moments, whether I win them or not. I know not everyone feels that way.
I know after all these years though, that I would rather not play at all than play knowing I wouldn't have a good time, so I just avoid certain types of players. I would also avoid someone who knew a particular rule, list, or model was really broken and exploited it as well. I mean, I'll give you the current game, but probably avoid friendship and playing again. So what do they really win? Ego boost?