He's above Shanks in both strength and skill, and I doubt the gap between Shanks and Roger is big
This is practically a myth created that Old gen is stronger than current on.
They have more hype , and current ones are yet to live the hype.
It's average shounen tactics to make new gen stronger than previous one. No matter how bad ass they seem.
They create Empty tier like PK tier.
Like no lol , There is no PK tier. ,
All yonkou are capable of being Pirate king.
Kaidou was just 300M short of Whitebeard who lived an entire life with grand status.
Roger got 5.6B because he became the king and Knows about the history.
Bigmom , Bounty doesn't reflect much.
Shanks with lowest bounty is simply Roger 2.0. With probably better haki.
Mihawk >= WB
Shanks >= Roger
Gap is not even huge. Between them.
Xebec , the way I see him. He was like Old WB in God's Valley.
Whitebeard expired at the of 72 , so currentlt 74 if alive. And 56 years ago he would be close to 18~19. That's his age in current flashback.
And xebec already looks in 39/40.
And 8 years ago like 32 , he killed an admiral.
I will suggest he would be around in late 40s in current flashback.
Similar to age of Aokiji , Katakuri , that's the age he looks similar to.
Fast forward to 18 years. Xebec would be , 68~70.
The age of old gen spectrum. Where Roger and Garp hit their prime and beat Xebec.
We are making imaginary gaps here.
No top tier is low diffing or mid diffing the other one. Unless your name is Imu or Nika/Joyboy.