Luffy was physically superior to Katakuri. He literally stated "Even your tough armament Haki is not going to stand up to Gear 4"
Literally the only thing standing between Luffy and Katakuri was Future Sight. Just like the only thing standing between Luffy and Kaido was a good attacking Haki.
This confirms that AP and lethality are enough to overcome COA, no matter how much you have a weaker COA.
You don't need Ryou to overcome a monstrous COA, just more strength and lethality.
As for KAIDO, the concept of force is totally ignored, you need to penetrate it, ACOA proved to be flawed, just like COA in chapter 923, to overcome the HAKI barrier, lethal and Firepower, that's all you need, and not ACOA and ADCOC, so 99% of the characters in one piece can defeat an admiral, but cannot beat KAIDO.
For KAIDO you need a mix between COA + ACOA + ADCOC.