WB grew to become an actual equal to the likes of Roger and Garp.
Rayleigh was put alongside WB by Garp.
Gaban was said to be equal to Rayleigh, and both of them to be on the same stand as Roger.
Current Crydo and Meme were said to also be much stronger than their early Rocks days during that bounty chapter.
Again, there's absolutely no "Xebec downscale" whatsoever. It's more likely that Roger, Garp and others finally managed to reach a level similar to Xebec when they got to their primes, than this chapter being a Xebec downscale.
People apparently forgot to read the part where it took Roger and Garp completely exhausting their hakis in order to pierce Xebec's defense and defeat him, as if that's a feat that could be replicated by anyone.
I love the Old Gen, but they are meant to be surpassed. It's the whole point of the story. Roger said multiple times a crew would appear to surpass them.
Luffy's declaration to Shanks from chapter 1 is saying he's gonna find a crew that will surpass Shanks' crew.
Luffy declared he was gonna surpass Crocodile when they fought in Alabasta.
Luffy declared he was gonna surpass the Yonkos.
Zoro wants to surpass Mihawk.
This whole story is about these bozos surpassing the older bozos.
Big old 2026 and people dont understand that.