Let's see what the man who injured Fujitora thinks of Kaidou:
GB came to Wano to kill the guys who killed
Kaido and BM and Beasts Pirates.
This alone ends your interpretation that GB admitted inferiority to KEKDO aka the irrelevant old news bum who got powercreeped by Old Gaban LOL.
His statement is probably more about Order - possibly about the Power Balance between the Marines and Emperors than about his own strength compared to Kekdo's.
He complained that the Marines didn't have manpower to deal with the mess that Beasts Pirates left for them, which may imply he cared about the stalemate/order that was there before between the Marines and Emperors :
And just, this is someone who is almost obsessed with order/hierarchy, and has talked about the order/hierarchy the WG and Marines imposed upon the world over and over :
To maintain this order, he is willing to fight another Admiral (Fujitora), or even fight an entire alliance that wiped out 2 Yonko along with 1 Yonko crew, to take the guy most responsible for the order's destruction (Luffy).
In that last panel (which is the panel that comes right after the panel you posted), he even specifically said that "the order Kaido imposed was the deterrent that kept other predators from targeting your country".
(GB being one of the "other predators").
Order, not strength comparison between GB and Kaido.
Order, not GB fearing Kaido or the guys who killed him (Luffy Law Kid etc.) :
An Admiral openly admitted that he feared Kaidou and was inferior to him.
Although that is not an official translation, it may still be similar enough to it.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Shanks Wi-Fi diffs an Admiral who's supposedly "his equal."
1. Shanks snuck GB who was pre-occupied with fighting 8 guys infront of him..... including Yamato who could stand with Kaido 1 on 1
That's similar to WB who snuck Akainu who was pre-occupied with Marco and Vista infront of him
What happened when WB didn't sneak the Admirals, and had to fight them head on from the beginning?
All 3 Admirals got the better off him:
Kuzan vs WB : Kuzan was about to stab WB with Ice Spears, but Jozu saved him
Akainu vs WB ended with Akainu landing a clean hit, which WB didn't do:
Kizaru vs WB:
WB snuck Kizaru who was about to stop Luffy, but couldn't hit him.
Ended with Kizaru casually standing on his Bisento & finger lasering him
Also, remember this?
Kizaru making Post-Kaido Luffy sweat & shat himself when he entered Egghead LOL (Kizaru wasn't even attacking Luffy too like Shanks attacked GB with angry full-fledged blast of ACoC)
Remember this?
When Shanks looked strong on Marineford, when he challenged everybody who wanted to continue fighting:
But, if they all accepted his challenge, would he still look strong like that?
No, because they'd have destroyed him.
Marines, Mihawk & Warlords, Blackbeard Pirates, and WBP.....
Heck the Marines alone could've destroyed him & his crew.
Akainu, Kizaru, Aokiji, Garp and Sengoku.....
Is it impossible Shanks vs GB scene is like this?
That its just an aura farming moment that doesn't accurately reflect how they compare in strength?