Does having something like 18 training guarantee that you'll get a certain quality of "training" for your team or if 12 other people have 20, does that diminish the value of 18? I know there's not likely to be a certain answer on this, just wanted to get other people's opinion.

Basically do you just get "18 training" regardless of everyone else or is that just used to rank the teams in terms of who gets the best and worst?

Those effects are independent of other teams' budgets.

you get an 18 training regardless of everyone else