Sure, but even then there's still a clear gap in power between Kyo and the average nameless God Valley pirate, yet he still got decked in the chin by one of them.
I don't believe getting hurt by fodders means as much as you believe it does. Jinbe got hurt by a Gifter and nobody's saying he's below Commanders for that.
I get the sentiment of "Koby didn't fight anyone strong on screen yet so he doesn't really have any feats to gauge his strength with", but using him getting hit by fodders off screen is disingenuous. Even Zoro was a little bruised against Gifters. It means nothing about a real fight between those characters, as Kyo would obviously destroy the lesser pirates on God Valley. Oda mostly just does that to show they've been putting in work against the enemy.
I don't believe getting hurt by fodders means as much as you believe it does. Jinbe got hurt by a Gifter and nobody's saying he's below Commanders for that.
I get the sentiment of "Koby didn't fight anyone strong on screen yet so he doesn't really have any feats to gauge his strength with", but using him getting hit by fodders off screen is disingenuous. Even Zoro was a little bruised against Gifters. It means nothing about a real fight between those characters, as Kyo would obviously destroy the lesser pirates on God Valley. Oda mostly just does that to show they've been putting in work against the enemy.
In Jinbei's situation he then proceeds to fight Who's Who. In Zoro's situation he has multiple fights.
In Koby's situation he has two arcs, where he's with 7 YCs, 1 Warlord, 1 Emperor. And Oda hasn't drawn a single interaction of combat with Koby and them. He's been limited to nothing but fodder control and taking damage from fodder, no different than Helmeppo and Grus were. Because they simply aren't that strong, which is fine by marine standards.
Even by the end of this arc, we're likely going to see some solid action from dudes like Kyo and etc, when the main event is only just starting.