I'm not claiming that the one with the higher bounty is also the stronger one, my bad if that came off that way.
- Queen has a higher bounty than Kata, but Katakuri whoops his ass imo.
I do believe that Oda puts character's bounties in a bracket to show how some characters are relative to each other.
- Capone/Hawkins/Apoo/Drake having similar bounties
- Commanders being above 800m and around 1B
- Yonkou between 4-5B
Etc
I think its striking when Oda gives Luffy a more than 3× higher bounty than Kid, also, putting Blackbeard much, much lower than the other Yonko.
Furthermore i think that BB telling Luffy it's too early doesn't necessarily mean there's no rivalry, but that Luffy is closing in, still a good bit below, but also a decent bit above his former peers, the supernova.
If that makes sense?