The first 3 pages of Luffy vs Lucci:
> Luffy uses G5, his strongest mode. Lucci uses awakening, his strongest mode.
> Luffy dodges some unnamed attacks from Lucci.
> Luffy and Lucci harden their fists, clash equally and send each other flying
The first 3 pages of Zoro vs Kaku:
> Kaku uses his strongest Rankyaku in Base. Zoro wakes up and casually blocks.
> Kaku uses awakening, his strongest mode.
> Kaku uses an upgraded version of his old named attack.
> Zoro hardens his swords and blocks whilst being pushed back.
> Zoro overpowers Kaku and sends him flying.
You didn't get my point. I was not doing a panel-to-panel comparison. It's pointless because it always depends on the circumstance. What I was doing was show the difference in portrayal between both battles overall, and I'd explain in the quote below why I believe Luffy had better portrayal / showing against a stronger opponent
What did Luffy have in reserve vs Luffy? ACoA, ACoC, higher-end G5 moves. What did Zoro have in reserve? Higher-release CoA, ACoC, KOH, Asura.
Zoro held back more than Luffy and looked better against a Kaku who was using stronger attacks than Lucci was, who really was barely tryna fight Luffy and was mostly aiming for Sentomaru. And in the end, Lucci looked better after the battle than Luffy did lol.
This is how the Luffy vs Lucci clash ended
Lucci was one hit away from the KO against a laughing / trolling Luffy. So not sure what you meant by better lol. If you're referring to the G5 drawback, it's far less restrictive than G4. He becomes an old man for a single panel, then right away he is back to normal form as if nothing happens, so the "drawback" is negligeable
And in terms of output comparison, Asura is a single attack while Luffy has multiple high ends G5 moves. KOH is just an amplified version of ACOC, so not sure why you seperated them lol. And in terms of ACOC, Luffy has a superior level to what Zoro possess. Same goes for ACOA, so in terms of who was holding more back, it's Luffy, yet despite that, Oda ended the Luffy vs Lucci conflict by showing that Lucci was an opponent that even a trolling Luffy(sleeping in some panels) could KO if he wanted to
In the Zoro vs Kaku's case however, Kaku's named attack briefly pushed Zoro back(compare this to Luffy daydreaming mid-Lucci attack ) and while ultimately overpowered, he still came out of his clash unscathed, with Oda having to use a plot device(Stussy) to take him out.
How the Luffy vs Lucci clash ended
How Kaku ended after his clash with Zoro
Oda using Stussy as a plot device to stop the battle before both they could go all out
This was the Enies Lobby callback
Yet what dominated Zoro afterwards was this
To the point, it forced him to unconsciously use Asura for the first time
As you stated, Zoro handled his bigan far better than in Enies Lobby where he had to use Ni Gorilla, but Kaku is a yontoryu user, taking advantage of his giraffe power to make full use of his yontoryu fighting style(blades and body). Something we didn't even see him use here, let alone the awakened version of amanedachi(though to be fair, we didn't see the awakened version of Lucci's rokugan as well)
Yet even before the clash could go any further, Oda used a plot device(Stussy) to take Kaku out
So overall, am I saying that Zoro couldn't beat him ? No, I don't even believe they are on the same level, but what I'm saying is that Oda left it much more inconclusive than the battle between Luffy and Kaku's superior(Lucci)