Lately I feel like the veterans have become a bit underrated, some people don't seem to realize that Oda never really got to fully showcase them during the WCI arc. Oda did hype up the veterans a few times, during the tea party many of Big Mom's children were there yet the only ones that Vito named and hyped up were Katakuri, Smoothie, Perospero, Compote, Daifuku, and Oven. The veterans were pretty much named and hyped up alongside two of the Sweet Generals, not saying they are as strong as them but at the very least they are almost as dangerous as them.
Another instance is when the Straw Hats were being approached by Daifuku's fleet, Jinbe a very strong pirate and former warlord was hyping up Daifuku. Jinbe who was part of the BMP for over a year knows which members are very strong and dangerous, so if he sees someone like Daifuku as a big threat that means Daifuku should be considered strong and very dangerous.
Some people keep trying to downplay Oven because of him getting attacked all the time, yet Oven was able to always get back up with very little injury because of his insane durability. In the vivre card it was even mentioned that Oven has the best durability out of all of Big Mom's sons, the man was shown to be a absolute tank multiple times and this might come off as a unpopular opinion but I do believe Oven can tank two maybe even three kong guns from Gear 4th Luffy.
Also when comparing the veterans to someone like Snack a former General, Oda always focused on the veterans over Snack. When the BMP were at Cacao Island, it was Oven leading them and getting the main focus not Snack. We don't know if Snack joined the BMP to Wano or not but let's just say that he did join, when the BMP were arriving at Wano the three BMP that Oda focused on were Smoothie, Perospero, and Daifuku. Even if Snack did came it's interesting that Oda never focused on him, yet Peropsero and Daifuku were the ones getting main focus along with Smoothie.
I don't even need to talk about how strong Perospero is, the man has a bounty of 700 million and he was able to easily overwhelm Brook and Chopper and then easily take down Pedro. However when it comes to Daifuku and Oven some people downplay them because their bounties are only 300 million, some people don't realize that 300 million is not a low bounty and having 300 million is still impressive. Yeah 300 million might seem low now compared to some other big time pirates but that doesn't mean they are weak, remember that Jinbe said that it becomes really difficult to get past 300 million and both Daifuku and Oven probably don't leave Totto Land that much anymore which is probably one of the main reasons why they don't have a much more higher bounty.
As I said before the main issue with the veterans mainly Daifuku, Oven, and especially Compote is that Oda never got to fully showcase them during the WCI arc, it was mainly just clashes here and there but never a full fight to really show how strong they truly are. Overall imo the veterans shouldn't be underestimated just because we never got to see them in an actual fight yet, and again both Vito and Jinbe hyping them up does show that the veterans are very strong and dangerous members of the BMP.