That's the thing. Sanji's track record didn't exactly spell out Luffy lvl. With Zoro I can certainly have made that argument. Given how they are usually grouped together (Supernova, Rooftop 5, AdCoC).
Zoro was also grouped with Sanji, but Sanji had nothing on Luffy. There is hardly a dynamic there, it's either Sanji is the odd man out (SN,R5,CoC), or both Zoro and Sanji are. M3 has some merit because for majority of the story the gap between Sanji and the 4th was far bigger than Luffy to Sanji.
So following the M3 blueprint I definitely expected Gaban to be strong because it's true Sanji is much stronger than the usual Nr 2s, but never placed on the same pedestal as Roger. This came out of left field, no one was predicting this not even Sanji fans, not to this extent.
Exactly. Roger's legend is the single most impressive thing about Roger. And he is unrivalled in this aspect. Lmfao at people tryna cope by placing Gaban's legend on par with Roger's, that's as you just said even worse for Roger. Far as we know this dude begged his way to the PK title, his legend is his claim to fame even moreso than his combat strength.