Ha, I’ll give you that his final form was crap.
But he still cause problems later in four knights.
He causes zero issues for Yamamoto.
He wasn't Royal Guard caliber really
Yamamoto loses to any royal guard
I find Escanor more impressive but then Bleach Universe is way bigger and broken hax wise I think
Id say prior to anime changes he definitely was Royal Guard caliber - he was stated to have the strongest zanpakto at one point in the storyline and it was evidently shown the caliber of his prowess but Ywach explained it perfectly why he lost that battle it’s because he came soft. If he was like his former self the story would’ve looked different overall.
he lost due to losing his bankai, Ywach having to formulate an entire plan to wear him out create a dupe of his goes to show the caliber Yamamoto was actually on, Kyrouraku still pales in comparison to old man Yama tbh if anything Yama was stronger than both Hikifune and Tenjiro. I have Ichibei, Senju and Nimaiya as being stronger than Yama.
Yama was also the creator of the Gotei 13 which would qualify him as a candidate for RG.
& for the verse escanor is impressive but he fails in bleach verse.
bleach is one of the strongest verses in manga/anime while 7ds is mediocre similar to pre shipped Naruto. That’s their caliber.