Got his arm charred or cut up and then sent flying against both of them. After he got in Akainu's way the second time Law was saying that even through his surgery he thinks chances are low that he could survive.
Marineford is full of questionable feats, i would not rely too much solely on what happened in that arc.
I don't know about all the Shichibukai = Veteran level or above. He used the same technique he used on Moria at MF against base Luffy in FI, and Luffy said it hurts but it did not doo much to him.
Meanwhile he used a 5000 Brick Fist ( which seems to be a stronger attack) on Opera in WCI, who's clearly quite a bit bellow Veteran level.
Like i said, maybe Jimbe is Top YC level, if that's the case i will not give Oda shit about it. Just be prepared if that's not quite the case and he falls a bit short from expectations such as "at least YC2".
He never gave me the feeling that he's in any way comparable to Katakuri in WCI like Queen does next to King for example.
He wasnt sent flying against Akainu. Jinbe has by far best barehanded feats of going against magma and a sword, against top tiers.
Law needed to operate on him because Akainu, later on, landed a clean shot on Jinbe against which Jinbe did not defend.
I am not relying just on MF, I am adding WCI too, by far the best barehanded vs sword feat in entire manga.
All original Shichibukai are easily above Veterans, above most YCs too.
Dont get confused about their power level just because they met Luffy and had to lose, somehow.
Yeah, his fist did nothing to Luffy, just like Mihawk's slash, we all know the legendary plot armor of Luffy.
Jinbe is one of the toughest guys around with best feats of going barehanded against either magma or sword.
Cracker never gave the feeling that he is comparable to Katakuri either and yet, gave Luffy a far harder fight than Katakuri, lol.
If Sanji should remain nr3 of the crew, by all means but he needs to earn it, Jinbe shouldnt be restricted by plot so Sanji can look better.