Does ELO determine your technical skill?

Ok, so before y'all get angry at me and stuff listen for a sec. Yes, I agree that silver players are generally better than bronze players, gold players are generally better than silver, etc But I never really agreed completely with the whole ranking system.

So I have a lot of friends that play league, and many of them are bronze-gold. The reason why I'm asking is because I have a friend in silver, but he acts like he's so much better than my friends in bronze , even though he's really not too good. He goes about 1/6/3- give or take- on average. When he's getting boosted playing with a higher elo friend, he does significantly better. (I know that there's a very fine line between silver and bronze- and that line is significantly more visible in higher elos- but bear with me) He frequently engages in 1v1 with one of my other friends in low bronze, yet when he always seems to need handicaps even though he's in a higher elo than the bronze kid.

Also, I have a friend who's stuck eternally in diamond V, even though he almost always carries and does well. Does that mean that he's "worse" than the players in diamond III? Not exactly, I would think.

So what do you guys think about ELO vs Skill?