This isnt about Kaido though, youre projecting a bit innit. My point is Admirals arent the end all be all and are comparable to stronger tier pirates and or weaker.
It's only about Kaido and you know it better than I do lol.
And this chapter damn near makes it look like the Admirals are really just that. The feat of killing an Admiral was reserved for the PK's greatest foe that canonically was put even above Primebeard.
Also if you want to say that killing and defeating makes a difference in diff then I can tell you that that's wrong. Akainu defeated Aokiji and could've killed him but spared him. It would've made absolutely no difference to the diff it took to win.