Yeah but Egghead got Kizaru and 5 Gorosei
It's natural things were harder, but even then you got Sanji and Zoro fighting back against Gorosei, Sanji laughing at SSG shit
Zoro got stalled by Lucci but still beat him, Luffy got clowned by some of the Gorosei but did well against some of them despite not being able to hurt them, and also did considerably well against a mentally nerfed Kizaru who even had to feed him (Kizaru was the main problem here clearly).
It would be garbage writing if Egghead felt easier than Elbaph
Nah before the Gorosei even stepped foot on the island, they were not allowed to actually flex like this. Not once did it feel or was portrayed like the Strawhats had the upper hand, despite being an entire Emperor Crew up against basically just 1 Admiral and Lucci.
I mean Luffy was out here twerking, and Franky who is as hard boiled as they come was straight up panicking when Kizaru pulled up. Sanji straight up saw Lucci fuck Stussy up and he suddenly became a sharpshooter instead of attacking Lucci. And then even Zoro did not put Lucci down.
Here Oda was comfortable using the Holy Knights to showcase their growth, even the fodder strawhats. That's probably a major reason he invented these guys. He's comfortable having them completely hype tooled.