He’s right though, experience does matter. I’m actually with him on this.
Idk if Daemon surpassed Cole but I would not be surprised if he did.
Well, I feel the show really overrated Daemon in the tourney scene. IIRC, in the book, it was a clean win for Cole both on the horse and in melee and he won decisively in both. The book shows a clear gap. Like he's straight up called the strongest warrior in the seven kingdoms if my memory isn't failing. There's also obvious tension shown in the show between Daemon and Cole. If GRRM wanted to make it clear Daemon surpassed him then he would have.
Experience does matter obviously but it's important to note that Cole was around the same age as Daemon then became a member of the kingsguard then the hand of the king. No way he wasn't training and improving as well during those years. He was in his prime after all. Also trained Aemond who's a fierce fighter in his own right. We know Aemond respects strength over most things and Cole is the guy he respects the most on the Greens side. He also destroyed Harwin in a 1 on 1 fight in the book where he shattered the guy's collarbone. That combined with his great performance in the war.
At least from my reading experience, I think GRRM was consistent with the portrayal of Cole being the strongest knight in the realm and the strongest warrior on the Greens side once dragons were removed.
Kinda feeds well into his whole narrative. He's pretty much betrayed his own ideology by sleeping with not one but 2 different queens of the realm. It's obvious there's a huge amount of self resentment and the only thing saving him was his own strength and Alicent. It's why he tells Gwayne in S2E8 that his only philosophy/way is his sword and he's a scumbag outside of that or something along those lines.
Don't reckon strength is emphasized for Daemon nearly as much.
Kinda a shame they never actually met or fought in the Dance because I feel they had a very underrated rivalry dynamic. But well, at that point the focus was on Aemond vs Daemon. This is very far fetched but Daemon having to kill himself to beat Cole's protege is probably GRRM hinting that Daemon would need to self destruct to have a chance at beating Cole but that's probably my fanboy side talking so I won't really mention that in a debate. Just good food for thought ig