Firstly, I'll say Haki is incredibly inconsistent and a terribly explained power so these are our attempts at interpreting Oda's awful writing. Now that the disclaimer is out of the way: ACoC is not just no-touching. ACoC is an amplifier that can either touch or not touch, it depends on whether the user has barrier haki and wants to apply their CoC to it. ACoC can also act as a steroid to barriers - take a CoA barrier and add CoC, now that barrier grows even larger because you added more Haki to it.
Fair
ACoC users can 'not-touch' with both level 2 and level 3 CoA. E.g - Zoro can create barriers if he wants to but that's counter-productive for a swordsman whose goal is to cut you. Shanks' Kamusari's blunt force effect leads me to believe he used a CoA barrier with it.
That's just level 2. Hyo never considered [
this] level 3. He admitted it, so any application of level 2 does not go to level 3.
Furthermore, you can also use level 3 CoA + ACoC and still touch. E.g - Kaido confirmed G5 Luffy is using CoA + ACoC yet Luffy isn't creating any barriers (I don't see why Luffy wouldn't be using ID CoA here).
G5 was not using Level 3 until BG. Luffy was using his awakening powers. In G5 he can now influence people or things into his elastic nature so he didn't need internal destruction. He was converting Kaido's body to rubber changing his durability. Luffy's haki aspect pointed out was used to overpower Kaido's own haki DF negation.
Luffy then decides to create a barrier for Bajrang Gun.
Right because now he used it to not only protect himself from Flame Torches burning power but to overpower Kaido as well.
Kaido and Yamato don't have level 3 CoA, that's why Yamato couldn't break her chains. But they could apply ACoC to their barrier haki if they wanted. Through Law, Oda likened Luffy to Rogerbeard so the confirmed users of level 3 CoA thus far are Roger, Luffy, Whitebeard, Big Mom and Rayleigh. Garp and Shanks are likely users too.
No one but Luffy and Big Mom has applied its use of Level 3(according to Hyo explanation). Your examples for aCoC barrier are level 2 aspects. Garp is a maybe right now for Level3, since it only makes logical sense that he has it being a brawler and non weapon user. But it's still a Maybe for now.
What Garp did with Galaxy Fist is make a huge CoC-imbued barrier. So it could be but may not necessarily be level 3 CoA. It could be level 2 CoA with a shit ton of CoC, who knows. What Zoro did vs King is apply CoC to his already CoA coated swords - this injection created an instantaneous barrier that pushed King back. Zoro is the perfect example of characters who can create barriers but choose not to.
Garp so far fits the narrative of Level 2[
example] and thus we will wait for further info if he can do Level 3.
Kaido never made a significant barrier without clashing with Luffy which leads me to believe he doesn't bother 99% of the time. Hell, he might've just been clashing with Luffy's barrier, making it look like there were two barriers for some of them. So without the visual indication nor indication from other characters, I can't claim Kaido is an ID CoA user. He had enough chances to prove as much.
Right, Kaido has shown enough to point that he can't do Level 3
Point is, this whole touching/no-touching thing is largely insignificant and not something to look so hard into. If a character is using level 3 CoA and we need to know, Oda will make it clear somehow. All that's important is the sum total of your AP. A barrier-less ACoC attack can be levels above an ID CoA barrier + ACoC attack, it just depends on the sum total of Haki + strength you put into the attack. See Luffy's base ACoC punches vs Paradise Totsuka.
Agree that AP varies regardless if powered by whatever haki.
Why would Luffy use Gear 2 + Gear 3 the first time he used Gear 2 against Blueno.. That's just not how he rolls
AdCoC + ID CoA looks like a Blown Balloon, AdCoC looks like a Pushed Cushion.. Big Difference..
AdCoC is not into an attack like lets say Hardening on a Sword..
Your entire arguments keeps consisting on ignoring manga panels I post that already established what needs to be understood and you constantly tryna fit your refutation into your own understanding only. I don't think this conversation will go any where. You're only gonna be convince in your own independent interpretation/thinking so I'll just leave it be.