Idk what 1hp means but it’s been established in Wano that Kaido has matchup issues with powerful swordsmen but those “issues” have never been dampening enough to question his placement in the verse. It took 11+ characters and the worst retcon in the series to take him out.
Irregardless you can argue about Kaido don’t really feel strongly either way but Whitebeard’s placement was crystal clear as the undisputed top dog with no other equal other than Roger. He’s literally been portrayed over everybody else post Roger with statements like these:
It’s blatantly clear that WB > anyone not named Roger yet you guys think Mihawk has superior portrayal? What manga are yall reading?
He would just be a pretender to the throne at that point, like he already is in actuality.
That is only a part of it, another part has to do with being renowned for your power, this has been stated multiple times:
Conquering the New World means establishing dominance over the Yonko (
and in extension surpassing the Admirals):
With WB at the forefront considered to be closest thing to the next Pirate King. Not because he had 3 road poneglyphs, but because of his strength as stated by Buggy. He was basically an uncrowned Pirate King who didn’t care about the crown but had the strength required to rule over it:
When Big Meme was complaining about how she couldn’t become Pirate King she pointed out the fact that she couldn’t capitalize on bringing in Elbaf as a powerful ally
She mentions that she would’ve beaten the contenders in Kaido, Shanks and emphasizes on Whitebeard (being the strongest). If RPs were the only thing that mattered the Meme wouldn’t have been so enraged about missing out on Elbaf’s warriors.
When Blackbeard stated he wanted to become Pirate King, he links it to ending Whitebeard’s reign:
And when he does end WB’s era he says this:
Mihawk whom you both have over Roger/WB considered becoming Pirate King to be a greater task than surpassing himself. If it was as easy as cracking a treasure map hunt Mihawk would’ve never said that and that statement aligns pretty well with what has been established so far regarding the individual strength of the Pirate King.
I could honestly go on, but what part of all of this has nothing to do with power and strength? Lowkey might make a thread on this been seeing a lot of downplay of the Pirate King title and Prime WB/Roger in recent years despite it being so clear.