Kind of. Real 1a play doesn’t really start until intermediate. I would say intermediate-advanced is beginner 1a, advanced 2-expert 2 is intermediate, and the master level tricks are beginning stages of advanced play.
Nobody today would really call you an expert or master if you could do every trick on the tricklist and not much else.
The skill list is clearly pretty informal, and its category names reflect that, I guess. Is it worth coming up with more useful/accurate labels for the categories? If the definitions of the categories are constantly moving targets, then how useful can they really be? Especially given that it is probably quite challenging to arrive at a consensus as to what the categories should be, and which tricks should reside in each.
Categorizing what’s what doesn’t really matter. When someone becomes a proficient, advanced, or skilled player they’ll know, if they need a list for confirmation, then they’re not there. All that matters is the tricks are ordered well, which they are.
I bounced around quite a bit on the ladder. I just watch something and see if it seems like something I’d like to learn. As far as what yoyo did I use it was whatever one I was using that particular day lol.