You know, when you are cloaked you yourself has the same amount of chance seeing your character as the next guy.
And the profiles ARE used. Here's the low-down. When you create a profile, it will store a motherload of records and stats in the data section. This is only for multiplayer games. BUT, you must always be logged on with your profile. If you are playing a tournament, it asks you to log on before starting the game. But, in single multiplayer matches, you must manually log on by click on the character name in the selection screen. So if you choose Samus as your character, bring the cursor down to your player box, and press on where it says "Samus", and the list of profiles will come up. You have to select your profile to use it.
Oh, and most of you should know this, I'm just saying this for the ininformed.
As for their use, well it's so you can brag over your friend that you've beat him 61.45% of the 372 matches you two have played against each other.
Oh, and to find the records, first you gotta go to data. Then you gotta to to the data pages for the characters. You know how it's 3 sections? The big chart, then the individual listings, then the top 5 records? Well when you are in the individual listings or top 5 records, press X I think to switch from character records to player records. Tada!