Your knowledge and practice are mandatory to the success of freelancing, but your reputation at freelancing sites is important too.
Those people got the biggest jobs, they could be better or worse than you but they have tons of successes backing them, so the hiring person will most likely choose them before you. As said this does not do all the work but is a considerable part of the work.
This means, at the start, you will have to deal with being unknown and the need to collect reviews from well-done jobs.