> It is also impossible to give a very low rating to someone that all peers see doing great work.

I work at a smaller company now, with a lot of very good people, so I've been happy enough with my rating and bumps.

When I was at "bigcorp", I was still as good at my job, but I didn't play the game very well. I presume I was not visible enough to be rated highly by my peers (peers aren't those in your team, but outside your team) and so I didn't see the rate of progression I think I merited, and eventually left.

That was a very good decision.