OK say it with me now:
Admirals > Yonko.
The Admirals were clearly always meant to be endgame antagonists while the Yonko were a last-minute decision because Oda felt there aren't enough strong pirates. Try to debunk this
Some hours ago I wrote this.
"Why can't the people just accept that kaido did not get "much stronger" but just that, oden was equally strong or slightly stronger? That doesn't dehype the yonkos, it just show HOW STRONG roger and wb was, just how strong rogers crew was and just whom the strawhats have to surprass.
End I am highly certain, that with imu and the gorosei, the endgame opponents won't be yonkos or admirals, but them. Meaning, it's veeeery veeeery likely that imu+gorosei > yonkos and admirals.
Which is logical, because luffy and the strawhats have to do that, which roger couldn't, simply because he was not the right one (too early at that time and so on. And it was/is luffy's fate)...
So, the strawhats at the end must be even stronger than the roger pirates, strong enough to take the gorosei on. Considering that, it isn't bad power scaling or story telling but just people interpreting things, that simply do not exist.
E.g. the narration said he got defeated and captured x times and said, on 1 vs 1 people would always bet on kaido. He is on land, sea and sky the strongest creature.
There are just soooo many ways to twist this in the story, to show why he ISN'T THE STRONGEST, which WILL BE DONE.
Come on guys"
To add something, I can't imagine the admirals as the absolute endgame... for example fujitora fighting for imu? For real?