What's interesting to note however, speaking from what used to be a red player, is that i've seen most of my progress with an increase in dpg, combined with knowledge on where to be on a map. Especially after watching enemies pull back instead of firing, due to being hit.
I can agree with both posters though, Doing lots of damage is great, it means that pubs don't have to work as hard, meaning less chance of them failing, but not doing the right damage more often than not is usually how I lose, Not hitting that 40hp E5 backing into cover, not hitting that hulldown E3 with HE to finish off his 3hp, not pegging that damn scout early game, comes back to haunt me than all the 5k damage i've gotten pushing flank A by myself.
From all that i've experienced, going from red, to yellow, to green blue and now almost purple, is that doing the right thing at the right time is what wins, if its killing 7 and getting 2k damage in a t10, so be it, or doing 11k damage and losing, because that 1 guy left that you could've killed at 40, instead of taking that 400hp heavy, flanked and killed you.