I’m not positive, but Mihawk, Akainu, Kizaru, Aokiji, and maybe Shanks and Teach are definitely above Kaido.
Lol why would the One piece people believe 1 on 1 bet on Kaido if there are up to 6 people stronger than him?
Why don't they believe in a 1 on 1 those characters have a high chance to win when opposed to anyone outside of their elite group of 6?
Also I can understand for Mihawk and Shanks since they are the strongest swordmen,Akainu is the fleet Admiral and probably the strongest marine but Kizaru? Aokiji? That's pushing it imo.
I’ve already explained it in the past, Oda’s number 1 concern is selling manga, and so he tries to hype Kaido in a joking manner to get people to buy more Wano volumes. Oda doesn’t need to hype other characters as they are much more important to the story and as villains than Kaido is, and so people will buy their volumes regardless. It’s the Yonko who need fake hype to make people interested in them since they are terrible characters.
The problem is this is your own interpretation and conclusion on why Oda hypes Kaido as the strongest,this is no way confirmed to be Oda's thoughts.
If Kaido isn't the strongest,then those he never bothered to hype as potentially Wsm can never be considered to be that even later despite being "more important".
The first time Oda joked about Kaido being the strongest was when somebody was asking about Akainu. But Oda realized Wano sales would be low if he didn’t create false and artificial hype for Kaido, hence why Oda only ever joked about Kaido being the strongest or spreads it as rumor and not fact instead of just definitively stating it lol.
He also never bothered placing any of your elite 6 above Kaido nor did he hype them to be candidates for World strongest individual despite appearing Preskip,so it kind of goes both way lol.
Kaido not ending up being the strongest is possible but any of those 6(bar Teach) ending up being current strongest despite no inverse hype even hinting that is unlikely.
Hint hint: he doesn’t definitively call Kaido the strongest because Kaido is not the strongest.
Lol so if I get your logic; Akainu and his colleagues of the elite 6 can never end up being strongest right? Since Oda never called them that. Neither will we know they are stronger than Kaido since Oda never placed them above Kaido even Jokingly.
To me the World strongest must be a person known by the world for a sufficiently long time and whose individual hype(title or Rumor ) puts him above every other person.
All those in your elite 6 have good hype but none has World Strongest man hype and that's why BB or Imu(unknown to the One piece world for a long time) are going to end up the strongest after Kaido is dead imo.
Wano will end and the World Government Saga will come and sales will again be an issue,let's see if Oda ever bothers stating any of those 5 are above Kaido or are candidates for the World Strongest.