So what, Houken was sitting around some Zhao woodland at supposedly 94 strength until Riboku came along with a job offer of Zhao Heaven in-name-only and Houken's strength stat spontaneously shot up to 100?
Houken is peak strength and was always been planned by Hara to be a monster and one of the greatest foe in the story
Houken is martially a top tier without any question
Tou was always planned to be a GG after Ouki early death, and always planned to be a top tier
Gyou Un and Bananji weren’t planned to be top tier at all. Just strong underlings
And for those type of guys it seems Hara blocks them at 94 tops
except realllyyyyyy rare cases