I'm not comparing him to Luffy. Zoro himself has little to no plot relevance and no one but Zoro and Mihawk gives a shit about the title regardless of Luffy. You say he has a high ceiling, but do do we get any feats to support the ceiling he's theoretically raised at? What makes his swordsmanship better than others? How can you begin to even make sense of swordsmanship when some keep putting Shanks over Mihawk despite both being swordsmen, and Mihawk being the better of the two allegedly? This is part of the problem. His title holds little value as primarily causes confusion. Mihawk never done anything great, and the biggest thing he's ever done was spad with Shanks. Who did he defeat to gain such a title? What's the purpose of black blades? These and more holes in Mihawk's lore only bring him, and indirectly Zoro, down.