Being the underling of someone is usually an indication of them thinking that...
Cause oda didn't wanna embarrass little mihawk lmao
He already has to mooch off of shanks hype. Having a bounty lower than the clown would have been the last straw for a lot of mihawk fans. Oda literally saved a lot of lives here
Imagine zoro's final fight having less bounty than a literal clown
Buggy got it from statements about his relationship to Shanks lol
Once again mihawk mooching off of the hype of shanks
So why not say mihawk is stronger outright?
Why use asterisks like Skill and sowrdsmanship etc?
Why does mihawk not have a bounty comparable to shanks?
After all, they know he's stronger than shanks right? And he has Buggy, another legend on their level, in their crew. Not to mention Croco.
so either mihawk Or Buggy should have gotten a 4bil bounty above shanks's. Just for having 2 legends/top tiers on the same team.
Yet they didn't. Why?