I think it changes up at times. When I first tried turbos and sharkscoped players there were loads of regs in them and not many dummies.
But recently there's an average number of regs and lots of dummies.
After the
wsop is aired, there is always an influx of new players, many of whom think that shoving with any two cards makes sense. Last year, I called it "The Cada Effect" but it's true every year.
It
will settle back down, and the tables will be more populated with regulars. If you play NLHE SNGs, though, that pool is very large on the big sites. If you play less popular games, the pool of regulars can be pretty small.
I like FLHE and OHL SNGs, and will often have played with at least half the table before and have notes on them. Some folks have been around for years, successfully. (They have notes on me, too, I'm sure.) Sharkscope will help ferret out other good newer players. Amongst the FLHE crowd, it's just a matter of variance if the all the final 3 are not regs. I expect that.
I definitely prefer to play with regs, whose tendencies are noted. But the presence of newbies makes it more likely that I will cash. A table full of solid regs means more consistent play,
but also a harder game to cash in. A table full of newbies usually means wilder play and luck then matters more. If I get on a table full of newbs who, in FL, cap the betting every time, I can either amass an early big stack that can help me win -- or get slaughtered early on when they catch some luck. At a table full of regs, I am a lot less likely to find myself with a big stack, and it's a lot more likely that several of us will still be there at the break, scrambling, with the bubble not yet burst and the blinds huge.
So it's not so simple as to say one prefers playing with people who play rationally. The irrational play can help you. You may be able to figure out what's going on with the rational ones, true. The rational players may not pay you off when the irrational ones might -- and that can make a diffence in one's own ability to cash. That said, it helps to know who on a table is likely to play a smart game, and who might be overplaying hands. A mix is good.