Couple things:
1) What makes you think Oda is uncomfortable with having Zoro fight a top-tier? He was more than happy to let pre-power up Zoro overwhelm Kaido, a high top-tier. He's even happy to let Zoro have an equal clash of ACoC with another high top-tier, Venus. What opportunity has Zoro had to have an extended fight with a top-tier since Wano?
1) What makes you think Oda is uncomfortable with having Zoro fight a top-tier? He was more than happy to let pre-power up Zoro overwhelm Kaido, a high top-tier. He's even happy to let Zoro have an equal clash of ACoC with another high top-tier, Venus. What opportunity has Zoro had to have an extended fight with a top-tier since Wano?
Oda using Lucci as a lazy stalling mechanism for Zoro on Egghead is evidence towards Zoro being a decent fight for a top-tier, as Oda used Lucci to keep Zoro away from Luffy, Kizaru and Saturn so that Vegapunk could die. The second this plot point had passed and stall piece was over, it was revealed that Zoro could've low-diffed Lucci anytime he wanted.
2) The top-tier is a tier, not a level. There are multiple levels within the top-tier.
RT Zoro may have been getting ragdolled by King, but he was still YC1 and of the same level, despite never facing a YC1 before. His feats were enough for us to conclude he was above most YC1s despite a distinct lack of feats against YC1s.
Oda gave each of the 3 YC1 nigh invulnerability. With Marco it's through his df and then linked to his stamina, with Katakuri it's through haki and then linked to his stamina, with King it's through his genes and linked to (god knows what) his flames. When all 3 characters have their invulnerable modes activated they are very close to invincible. You can argue one is more invincible over the other (depending on the situation).
In the time limited situation Zoro was in he was going to struggle equally as much against either of Marco or Katakuri.
Similarly, Zoro can still be on the same level as a top-tier despite not having an extended fight with one before. Particularly the weaker top-tiers such as the old legends.
This time, people aren’t putting Zoro above top tiers, just on the same level as them so the comparison naturally scales down. And unlike the massive gap between top tiers and everyone below them, the gap between YC1 and YC2 is much smaller, so Zoro being around YC1 lvl on the roof only strengthens my stance, because he "looked" like he was much stronger than YC1 which turned out false. 1v1s are a different beast.
Now that Zoro has control over his ACoC, what's putting an entire level difference between him and say Gaban? Particularly when you consider that KOH Zoro should logically be a full fledged top-tier as he's using Oden levels of haki, and now his base is looking clean as well.
Zoro's essentially the best of both worlds between two of the strongest Inbetweeners, Law (AP) and Yamato (ACoC/CQC) rn, combining their best attributes in brackets to be eligible for top-tier consideration.
What did that Top tier ( Luffy) do when he ran in baby kid weaker Lunrians? Surly Top tier Luffy 1 tap him especially with help from Lucci right. Here comes the excuses in the reply


What getting every single thing about the manga and liking each other posts like lemmings in a eternal circle jerk without a single orginal thought in the head does to mfers
Never doubt the Supreme Janitor, Veku-chin.
