Katakuri kills chefs. Sanji is a chef so Katakuri kills him as well; and killing Vergo-san is just the bonus for Katakuri.
True, Katakuri negged Ichiji who's comparable to Vergo-san.
Katakuri uses the trickiness of his fruit. No one cares about that. Vergo is a fighter in his own right
Without fruit Katakuri is not even veteran. Without his fruit he is relegated to shit
The veterans are in the same commander tier. They were all said to be "monsters" back at the tea party. Katakuri was noted by Capone for his CoO and his trickiness and that gave him some special distinction, but overall the commanders and veterans were all put in the same category as "monsters"
Daifuku is revealed to have armament haki
The sfx for when Vergo and Daifuku clashes are different
Daifuku screams at the top of his lungs and gets casually blocked by Sanji. Daifuku is one of the monsters, together with the Sweet commanders, Oven, Perospero and Compote was also mentioned. Daifuku is held on an equal standing. That the commanders > veterans of the family is bs, they're all around equal. Daifuku is the PHYSICAL specimen, even over Smoothie
As this is the aftermath of Daifuku slicing up multiple ships
and this is Smoothie's slash
Sanji had no problem keeping up with the physical specimen of the family and blocking his shit, while Vergo clashed with his ankle