Does the winner of a race need to be told he's faster than then the people he just competed against? Of course not and it's the same here.
Oda doesn't need to spell out "Mihawk is stronger than Shanks" when Mihawk's title does that for him. That's the benefit of having that type of title. So every single time we see Mihawk with his WSS title box, Oda is telling us he is stronger than Shanks.
And oda's portrayal of mohawk is telling us the exact opposite of that lol
getting stalled by vista, blocked by jozu etc.
Referring to wb as being superior to him, making excuses not to fight shank etc.
Oda is keeping shit ambiguous for a reason.
Titles aren't everything. mf wb sure as hell wasn't the wsm.