If Shiryu is inferior to Zoro in all those stats, he wont be Zoro's next opponent. If you think, ZorovsShiryu will be a CoO training fight, you are mistaken.
It's what i think.
Shiryu just isn't Mihawk, bro.
But then if someone as powerful and as balanced as Zoro is gonna be getting beat by Shiryu, that means Shiryu beats less powerful and less balanced characters even harder?
So ultimately it means Shiryu deserves to be placed as comparable to Zoro if he does manage to have a clear upper hand (not some Pica bs, more like King).
Sure it may mean Zoro performs better against top tiers due to better AP, but Shiryu can pretty much beat anyone Zoro can no?
I'm not following your argument.
Someone as powerful/balanced as Zoro suffers vs Shiryu precisely because Shiryu can exploit the one facet where Zoro isn't balanced.
Weaker characters can actually do better than Zoro vs Shiryu, if they are able to counter Shiryu.
For example, if Shiryu was supposed to fight a different Zoro (hypothetically if he has same CoO as Garp showed this chapter & no CoC infusion), Shiryu would still get beaten.
The growth that Zoro underwent in Wano, is pretty much irrelevant in the Shiryu fight - is my point.