A clash would do to denote parity, I said its either he defeats Loki or a worst draws.
Yeah but there's still a massive difference between a draw and a L. We all know Oda won't have Shanks actually look bad in a potential fight, I'm not arguing for Loki clapping Shanks and then someone sneaking him to save Shanks lol. What I think might have happened is Loki/Shanks starting to fight on equal ground after having a disagreement over attacking Marijoa, then Shanks pretend he will actually help Loki to it and attack him when he dropped his guard.
And I don't think that would be inconsistent with Shanks character, Oda will make clear Shanks did it to prevent Loki from getting himself killed. As good as Oda portrays Shanks, he's not below doing stuff like manipulating his own family (granted they are rotten people, but they genuinely welcomed and trusted him, they weren't mistreating him like Sanji family) if he believes he's doing a service to the world and that will be the twist . Shanks did not capture Loki to punish him from killing Harald/or wreaking havoc in the new world like readers were first led to believe, but to protect him until he meets Luffy so they can team up together and free the world.
Them having an equal clash at first will be for Oda to keep ambiguous who would have won if the fight kept going normally without outright wrecking the powerscaling.
Is this headcanon? Yes; but at this point everything surrounding Loki/Shanks is headcanon aside from Loki ending up captured. If Shanks is truly this strong and really beat Loki fairly I'll accept it, my issue is people dismissing all the portrayal and feats Loki got because of an event we didn't even see. Loki and HK Harald aren't suddenly going to become Big Mom victims no matter what, their portrayal is crystal clear.