Yea the middle ground is Garp isn't below them.
I'm the one doing the middle ground, not you. If I based it off GV alone and ignored MF completely I would have it clear cut Garp > WB. Now, there's just no way I can place Garp below Roger or WB in any discussion.
You are the one ignoring GV completely and sticking to old outdated opinions. Garp isn't below them like we thought, it's time to just accept what is being thrown in our faces.
No, middle ground is accepting Garp is on their level.
Garp > Rogerbeard is absolutely absurd given the 1000+ chapters of precedence which tells us the opposite. This conclusion straight up makes no sense and is as dumb as saying things like Zoro > Luffy or Sanji > Zoro. Rogerbeard are Garp's
ceiling, not the other way around.
Similarly, Rogerbeard >> Garp is absurd given that Garp is clearly portrayed as one of the top fighters of his era. Before GV, many had Garp on par with guys like Shiki, Prime Kaido etc... Now it's safe to say Prime Garp was a PK level fighter.
My middle ground is that the PK tier is Prime Roger >= Prime WB > Prime Garp, and the only reason Garp is in that conversation is
because of this very brief GV flashback. Roger ~ WB as the top 2 is a One Piece staple, solidified for decades. Recency bias based on a brief flashback which also doubles as the peak/highlight of Garp's career is not gonna change that. Garp's peak is an equal win with Roger - Roger went onto become Pirate King and when he died,
Whitebeard was the one who became known as Roger's closest equal and the strongest, don't forget that.