Apparently in this survey, it’s better to be merely “good” than to be “quite good”, which is the opposite of what I’d expect. I can’t find too may online surveys using “quite good”, and the ones that do look like this:
I think in this case, “quite” isn’t even needed. We already know that ‘good’ is better than average.
Admittedly I don’t hear many Americans saying “quite good”, they’re more likely to say ‘very good’ or ‘[explicative] good’. Whenever I’ve heard a person using British English say “quite good”, their intonation and facial expression gave me the impression they were on the edge of an orgasm. This again suggests that ‘quite good’ = ‘very good’, or maybe even better than very good.
So which is it? Is ‘quite good’ better than ‘good’ or not as good as ‘good’ or just as good?
I could see “quite good” being meant like “fairly good”, which is a slightly-less-than modifier. But it’s mostly in the tone of speech. An upbeat, “Quite good!” response to a “How are you doing?” is obviously a very good thing. But the same words delivered in a somber way, “Oh, quite good I guess” would make it a negative qualifier, more like, “can’t believe that bad thing happened to me”.
When I look it up in google and get its dictionary result, the first one is what we’d probably expect: “1. to the utmost or most absolute extent or degree; absolutely; completely.”
But the second result is probably where the “ehh” feeling can come from: “2. to a certain or fairly significant extent or degree; fairly.”
Which has synonyms of “slightly” “relatively”, “moderately”, and “reasonably” listed below, to name a few. If we used any of these modifiers on “good” when being asked “How are you?” it would sound like really, things are going kind of badly, but not enough to complain about or we don’t want to talk about it.
Anyway, despite all that, I agree with you that all by itself, I would consider “quite good” to be better than “good”, and “good” to be better than “average” all by itself.
I have heard of this, anecdotally. Somewhere on the 'Net I once saw a British English speaker insist that “quite good” means “just OK” or “not very good”. It was presented as a difference between British and American usage.
In American English, ‘Quite good’ is always better than just ‘Good’ but you never see that terminology on American surveys. I didn’t know British people ever used ‘Quite’ as a negative until now. With all due respect, they need to learn how to speak English if they do but they are foreign so maybe they just don’t know any better. ‘Quite’ is a synonym for ‘Very’ and ‘Quite good" is the same as "Very good’. It is an intensifier, not a negative modifier.
“Quite good” meaning “adequate” or “just OK” is also an archaic Appalachian expression based on Victorian English that I heard my grandmother and aunts say in the 1960’s. It’s said with a flat monotone inflection rather than “quite” being emphasized. It was also understood that “QUITE good” meant very good!