The problem is that you're assuming how these crews work without an actual confirmation, hence why you talk about Burgess because of his ship rank even though he may be one of the weakest members of the crew for all we know. Out of those, the only characters who have been addressed as significantly stronger than their coleagues are Katakuri, mentioned as the strongest commander under Big Mom, and arguably Beckman because of his comparisons to Shanks in the Vivre Card. For the rest, Marco has been seen to be a better leader overall but Jozu was the one commanding the combat division of the Whitebeard Pirates, we know nothing about who are the actual top fighters under Blackbeard and King and Queen were introduced in the same superior place towards Jack and both have been prominent during the arc; the only thing that could put King above right now is his name, but who knows what logic is Oda following here because the king isn't always the best card in the French deck.
And yes, Zoro and Sanji being involved is a reason why people put them closer in strength, but I don't want to fuel that debate.
Don't we literally know that the beast pirates are a fighting strength meritocracy?
That's literally stated. You fight a guy above you and take his place if you win.
You do realise NO OTHER CREW in the whole story has EVER presented such a clear outline of how strength and rank work in their crews. No other single crew.
Like you mention who commands what people in the whitebeard pirates and there a number of weird justifications for identifying being second division commander yet he clearly had NO interest in leading anyone yet he was made a commander.
Then in wci mont d'or and perospero were giving smoothie and the formerly demoted snacks orders like they were part of the random fodder.
And yet the beast pirates are clearly the most direct. The ranks are directly implied to be strength oriented and we even see the authority doesn't even matter that much. The tobi roppo clearly don't care much for all stars and yet it's remains a fact that the all stars are above them simply because THEY ARE STRONGER.
Like why introduce a fighting strength based meritocracy for the whole crew when it specifics loy breaks down at the top of the crew.
Again, ONLY THE BEAST PIRATES have this. No other crew has ever placed fighting strength and rank this tightly together than the beast pirates.
Yet The clear rank difference between king and queen, is supposedly the most contentious in the community because it would directly mean king is stronger than queen as per the meritocracy but then Zoro and Sanji exist