-> Whitebeard commanders + Warlords were sweating and shook over the reveal of Luffy being Dragon's son. Meaning he's taken renowned actions that establish him as a powerful entity. Coupled with Ivankov crediting Luffy doing wildly outrageous things to him being Dragon's son. We simply don't know about them, as Oda wants to maintain his mystery for now.
-> We're shown what triggered him into creating the Revolutionary Army, though not what triggered him into creating the freedom fighters.
-> We're shown that he thinks the Marines don't have "justice" among them.
-> We're shown that he coordinates his subordinates properly and effectively might I add.
-> We're shown that his commanders and underlings in general are highly loyal to him, even though fans think he's a bum for not saving Ginny (though we literally have 0 idea if he attempted something or didn't attempt something).
-> We're shown he had connections with important figures of recent history that were high level intellects, Dr.Vegapunk and Professor Clover.
-> We're shown he has no care for "spotlight" or "victory", it's all about getting the job done in liberating people. IE, Sabo gets widely renowned, he has 0 care of it. When RA subordinates start celebrating their victories he tells them it's nothing to be celebrating about.
-> He has deep affection for his son, and there's a deep longing in his heart to meet his son, but chooses to actively stay away and not interfere in his son's journey. Though his subordinates have provided constant help to his son.
As a commander:
-> Played both the Blackbeard Pirates and CP0 by abandoning Baltigo after Baltigo lost it's value (Baltigo's sole value was that it was undiscovered), and having the two fight each other.
-> Effectively raised armies across the 4 seas + Grandline, coordinating them effectively to the point numerous countries have accomplished in rebellions. I don't think people realize how much logistical hell this is, in a world where ships are you means of travel.
-> Effectively coordinated a successful attack on Mariejois.
-> Lord knows what other connections he has brewing behind the scenes, with other organizations or within the Marines themselves.
Y'all really gotta stop looking at characters from "feats" "Fighting" etc PoV. All of that shit is secondary to his actual role as the commander of a global army, that no other character outside of Kong and Akainu are doing, and they got way more help in their shit.
That Dragon is not one of Oda's favorite characters.
Literally the opposite. The two characters he mentions when asked who he would like to expand on if he had enough time, were Garp and Dragon.