I agree with everything you say and I am not trying to take anything from Buggy as far as his threat level goes. He's clearly seen as a huge threat. It's just that he wouldn't have any influence over Mihawk's bounty the same way a Yonko captain would have an influence on their subordinates. Take King, for example, they fear King because they'll have to deal with Kaido if they did something to King, which means Kaido has an influence on King's bounty.
When it comes to Buggy and Mihawk, they don't fear Mihawk because they'll have to deal with Buggy; they fear Buggy because they'll have to deal with Mihawk. So Mihawk is the one influencing Buggy's bounty, not the other way around.
I think we agree with this, but what we differ is how we interpret it.
Which is fine.
Once we get a bit more of Cross Guild and maybe how the WG perceives them, it should be cleared.
Either way, as I've said, it's still a MAJOR W for Mihawk, who DESPERATELY needed something at this stage of the story.
He's not some "distant goal" anymore. All these characters, Mihawk, Shanks, Teach, Admirals, etc, are all "possible next opponents" material.
We really needed Oda to "cleanse" the bad impression Mihawk had during Marineford, and bring some hype of his own to the table for this final saga.
I'm truly excited for it.
While I don't expect the fight choreography to be any good, this big bounty is a great start for the build up of Zoro vs Mihawk in the next arcs.