You merely gave an exception.
For new pirates, bounty are less reflective of strength because there's just not enough data for the marines.
But for established pirates, bounties are highly indicative.
That's why Yonkos have the highest bounties. I guess we can assume any random pirate like Higuma to be able to defeat jack since "Bounty doesn't correlate with strength in the slightest."
I didn't say someone's strength has nothing to do with their bounty. Just that they're not 'heavily correlated'.
Like I said, it's a perceived threat level. Kid had a higher bounty at Sabaody than Luffy bc he killed/attacked innocent civilians, pillaged villages etc. It didn't necessarily mean he was stronger.
The Yonkos are supposed to be balanced so having two commanders stronger than Katakuri would break that balance.
As much shit as Meme Pirates get, it's silly to act as if they're much weaker than the Beast Pirates.
Kaido~BM
King~Katakuri
Queen~Smoothie
Jack~Cracker
The captains and commanders of the two crews should be relative to one another, otherwise this notion of the Yonkos being in a stalemate doesn't make sense