Neonchameleon
Legend
A rogue will indeed beat most monsters most of the time under normal lighting conditions (and in darkness if they have darkvision). By contrast a level 5 ranger is only likely to have a stealth of +7 so will occasionally fail.By 5th level, your average rogue will have a minimum stealth roll of 10. He'll beat most monsters most of the time in normal lighting conditions, and in darkness, so few monsters have a PP above 15 (or blindsight/tremorsense) that failing a stealth check will be virtually unheard of.
However it's the really hard jobs where the ranger excels. If you're e.g. trying to sneak into an order of clerics or trying to filch something from a dragon's hoard you want a ranger. They can't do it all the time - but a +17 stealth for the really hard missions at level 5 puts them reliably beyond almost anything without exceptional supernatural senses.
The other point about that +10 is that it's what the untrained Dex 10 wizard has under Pass Without Trace. and yes it will get past almost anyone. For the average to tough jobs the rogue is better - but for the truly hard jobs you want a ranger (or a monk of shadow - and my monk of shadow was where I really noticed the difference in play, with the ability to teleport across open ground also helping).
Quite!That said, I don't see how there's even a debate over whether the Ranger is better than the Rogue at some things. Just by virtue of being a half caster, any competently built Ranger will have options open that the Rogue doesn't. A Beastmaster with Goodberry and Spike Growth can do things no single-classed rogue can do. It's just how it is.