The physical distance is still the biggest cope to this day
Did bro become an architect? Is he trying to measure the square footage there or what?
And why does wanting to compare the distance that separates them (in strength) have to mean that Mihawk is inferior in power?
It may mean that Mihawk (level 100) wanted to know how much power separates them, to know if Shirohige was still the strongest in the world (which we know that in the state he was in, he was no longer) or if he was already below Shiro's level (level 90)
So Mihawk was going to see that Shiro was below him by 10 levels (this is an example) and there he would check the distance that separates them, 10 levels, with Mihawk being 10 above.
And it is logical, in MF, Shiro was easily damaged by many characters inferior to Mihawk, in addition, Shiro also went with everything, to save his son. And his haki was greatly weakened.
And well, chapter 1140, and we still don't know and Oda still hasn't shown us the true power of Mihawk, and not a single technique yet.