Thing with Kaido vs Luffy to me is that while I see the popular take that Kaido outcasts Luffy who is known for having stamina issues in higher gears, he went toe to toe with Kaido for majority of the fight and that in Base. We also know that Gear 5 final attack overpowered Kaido's strongest attack.
If they run it back I think both would wear each other out and then go for the finish in their respective forms and I believe Luffy is just superior in G5.
Agreed.
The way you describe it it sounds like the power to destroy the world is a burden to WB. Come on Teach has seen the strongest fight and still came to the conclusion that getting the Darkness and Quake Quake fruit is his ultimate goal to become the strongest.
When WhiteBeard was in his prime? It probably was a burden. His devil fruit was as much of a danger to his allies as it was to his enemies - we see that at Marineford. So long as he could use Haki, it was probably always a better choice against single opponents (or even groups of opponents, as Garp has shown).
Where I see Devil Fruits as having advantage over Haki is that they are not as dependant on the user himself: basically, Haki has far higher peak of power than a Devli Fruit, but it also grows
and drops off more quickly. So a rookie devil fruit user will be more powerful than a rookie Haki user because Devil Fruit is simply easier to use, and old Devil Fruit user will be more powerful than similarly-aged Haki user because Haki is more dependant on person's physical and mental health. But a Haki user in his prime will always win against a similarly skilled Devil Fruit user in his prime.
Also, Teach is a
very bad argument here. Matter of the fact is that Teach is the
anti-Pirate King. He literally shows us what
not to do to become a Pirate King; he is much like Melkor in
Lord of the Rings, somebody who is doomed to fail because he has rebelled against God's designs.
I mean he never had an extensive fight with WB like Akainu did.
Agreed.
I believe none of em was even close to showing the full capacity of their abilities in MF. Even Akainu's hell hounds looks like his signature move like Kaido's TB or Shanks's Kamusari.
Well, "full capacity of their abilities" would be using their devil fruit awakenings, which... yeah, not a good idea.
That could also mean that he's the strongest. Not saying he is but a big chunk of the community thinks Katakuri is the strongest commander because he was designed to be beaten by Luffy.
That however would only make sense if Akainu
wasn't designated to be beaten by Luffy, which... I don't think is possible. Blackbeard and Akainu are the two people who were
directly responsible for Ace's death.
I highly doubt Oda makes an Admiral become the FA with all of them being in their prime and the FA isn't the strongest. Just doesn't make much sense to me.
Add the fact the importance of Akainu with killing Ace and potentially being defeated by Luffy and he has far more reason to be the strongest Admiral
Yeah, makes sense. I don't really care about the "Fleet Admiral" part - after all, Sengoku and Garp were implied to have been on par (Gol Roger literally says "Bring me Sengoku or Garp" when he got bored of beating fodder), yet Sengoku is Fleet Admiral and Garp never went beyond Vice Admiral - but I agree that Akainu does hold the most personal significance for Luffy.