Imagine the manga is in Enies Lobby and Luffy just defeats Blueno with Gear 2.
Does that mean, Blueno > Crocodile? Think about it.
The guy who Oda has no problems later on putting in Level 5, clashing with heavy weights in MF, and a 1.9 Billion bounty now at CG. And this guy will be considered weaker than Blueno, cuz "FeAtS"