1. Thanks for asking the question! I think it's natural and reasonable to ask about progress! This is a good group, BUT, notice that there is a mix here: some people like to fix games... some people just collect games... some like to play... and finally the last category is people who actively try to get better at pinball. This is a small category IMO.
2. I am very result driven and I am all about progression in games -- not scoring -- so I am always frustrated by my slow progress it took me 6 years to develop the consistency to beat games on location (ie hard - very hard settings, tight tilt).
3. I have not been good about practicing ball control aspect of the game (drop catch, live catch, multi ball play) and this is key to success.
4. I have been very good about developing strategies to beat games with my limited skill set
- what modes do I do, in what order?
- how do I bring in multi balls and what do I use them for?
- how to get all the extra balls I can?
and so on.

Having a strategy is key to a game like a modern stern. The games are deep and you need to play for a long time to beat them so there needs to be safe strategies or you're just counting on luck and sooner or later that wears off.

Men vs women question: there is absolutely no reason why men should be biologically better at pinball than women: the reason for 2 tournaments is that this is (was -- it's changing!) a heavily male-dominated field and the top male skill level *was* (no longer is!) significantly higher -- so it made no sense to have everyone in the same tourney.

For the same reason as it makes no sense for beginners to enter tourneys with pros.