Sorry for the late reponse
Okay, I want to preface this by saying I do not think of Ruby as an idiot by any means. She's smart in her verse for her combat analyzing as well. Both her and Maka share that trait.
But I think it's a major logical leap to believe Ruby can take one look at someone who fights with a regular (to her) looking scythe with no mechanical doodad RWBY-ness to it, fighting against someone who shares a telepathic connection with their sentient living weapon partner (which is something she has never experienced before in her verse) and determine that she fights just like any other scythe user because she and Qrow use a weapon that's similar. And then somehow deduce that they used specific soul-attacking powers that don't exist in her verse as well. Ruby knows how to analyze weapons in her verse because RWBY has cool transforming (and not sentient with their own fighting knowledge) weapons. She can get an idea how Maka fights, it's not going to be an instant understanding of her entire verse's battle style.
Its funny you bring that up, because she actually would. Not every weapon in RWBY is an overengineered nightmare of a weapon, there are plenty of people who use simple, straightforward weapons with little to no function beyond what the weapon itself is made for. At the same time, the people who wield weapons like these almost always specialize in Aura and Semblance-centric combat, ie. soul-attacking powers. She wouldnt know Maka's EXACT capabilities but the fact that Maka's weapon has no gun or other mechanical function would likely tip her off that she uses soul-based attacks more prevalently. Also, she would absolutely notice that Maka's scythe is moving on its own, even the people she fights point out that she doesnt fight the way someone with her weapon should, because Soul does the heavy lifting when it comes to combat maneuvers and she just goes with the flow and puts power behind the strikes at the last second.
On Maka's part, she's seen scythe users fight before (IE her dad working with Lord Death) and she's seen guns before. Sure the combination would be weird at first, but it's not like she's a cavewoman seeing someone use fire before. The strangest thing Ruby can pull on her would be her semblance, but splitting apart and reforming somewhere else isn't anything too weird from what she fought in her series.
Yeah thats what I mean, neither really has anything the other hasnt specifically seen before, it'd just be weird for them both to see each other's fighting styles.
Yes, and Maka also fights with DWMA students in training as well. It's kind of obvious that combat trainings take place because the entire point of DWMA is to raise Meisters who can hunt corrupted souls and (eventually) witches. And in that case I'd also wager that Maka has had more time fighting enemies with human-like intelligence that are willing to kill her without having to stop due to training limitations.
Ruby has over a decade of experience fighting human-level opponents, Maka has one to at the very most two years. The training limitations are almost nonexistent in RWBY, theyre able to fight at full force with live ammunition and bladed weaponry without needing to hold back due to everyone having Aura, meaning they wont actually hurt each other if they fight at full force.
Except Maka also fought and managed to do well with not only her own Father (twice, with no chain resonance either time) but also Tsubaki in her chain-scythe form.
For the fight she did with Spirit, that was after she had started training to use a scythe without relying on Soul, though she only ever wielded Spirit once, in the fight against Crona, with Spirit granting her a unique resonance due to the wavelength that he and Maka share as father and daughter which amped her to the level of Crona in power and speed. For the Tubaki thing...Maka didnt really do...anything. She threw Tsubaki's scythe form at Free and then got her ass kicked and had to switch back to using Soul, with Tsubaki herself saying that it was a physical and mental burden on Maka to use anything other than a scythe because thats the only weapon she is able to synchronize with and specialize in as a Meister.
I think the part of this whole 'not great fighter' argument I fundamentally disagree with you on is that you're taking Maka's fighting style as if she is squaring up without Soul, like she'd have to go boxing against Ruby who is still allowed to go around with Crescent Rose. That's not how Soul Eater fights work. She is going to have Soul. Soul contributes to the entire fight dynamic.
Thats not how im taking Maka's fighting style. Maka while wielding soul is still unskilled, its a major plot point that one of her bigget personal insecurities is her belief that she is holding Soul back by being a weak and unskilled Meister that relies almost entirely on him to do the fighting.
Now I understand that your argument is going to be that Ruby can just separate her from Soul and then it's just GG, it's just not that simple. If neither Crona or Asura are able to do that when they are literally fighting to the death (and both of them scale way above Ruby I'm sure you agree) then I don't see Ruby being able to either. Maka's got her own skills, Soul is going to constantly have her back and know what she knows while doing support using his Piano, Wavelength shenanigans, etc.
Crona...did do that though. In the final battle Crona nullified the resonance wavelength between Maka and Soul and Maka was left entirely defenseless, with BlackStar having to do all of the fighting and also protect Maka because one hit from Crona would have killed her. Plus Neither have an ability like Ruby's semblance, which lets her break down matter she touches on a molecular level, with said ability also being soul-based and thus capable of messing with the resonance wavelength.
And yes, I understand her dust has AoE. But such AoE is also not going to span an entire battlefield in a single hit. Maka's got the reflexes and speed to get out of AoEs, especially if she's got her Black Blood dress (because they are giving it to her, don't think they aren't) which gives her one of her two modes of flight along with her Grigoi soul.
Ruby's Dust blasts are able to catch people with FTL reflexes in their AoE, and Ruby can fly as well with her Semblance. Never said she wouldnt get the BBD, that is the one form thats completely fair game as she doesnt need outside help for it beyond Soul.
Also I just want to say, respectfully, Weekly. I understand that you hate RWBY and that's why you want to see it represented as accurately as it can (this is a lie I still don't understand this but I digress)
I dont understand why you think its a lie.
but you harp on about how Maka isn't all that and only wins through the power of friendship, but I think you fail to apply the same metric to Ruby herself. I'm not going to say I've seen everything up to vol 9, but from some brief research I don't see where Ruby has won a single fight on her own that isn't against Grimm or mooks. Any time she's putting up wins against people of similar skill or strength, it's with her team.
Now I do want to point out that yes, that is in fact the point of the show (it's even in the name) but that also means you can't take victories she's "won" and chalk it up to her efforts alone. She hasn't 1v1'd a maiden level character and won, she's scrapped by with the help of her team and others. When it comes to Maka and Soul they are the team. You can't say Maka's useless without Soul because the entire power structure of the setting and world is that two (or more) people fight together as a single unit. And unlike Ruby, Maka's got victories under her belt with just her and Soul.
You may want to do some more research then, because Ruby has tons of solo victories under her belt, most notably Harriet Bree, who is Maiden level. Maka's 1v1 victories are against people far weaker than the people Ruby has beaten 1v1.