Luffy being weaker than the arc villain is common

Crocodile: Beat Luffy in the desert, beat Luffy at the palace (you can interpret it as a draw ig? since Luffy meant for the water to fall back on him but he would’ve died if Croc didn’t just drop him straight down), and if Robin didn’t give him the antidote he would’ve died to Croc’s poison in their final battle. Even being very generous to Luffy, it was 1 win for Croc and 2 draws

Enel: Obvious, Luffy was a hard counter to Enel

Moria: Luffy needed help from all the SHs + the inhabitants of the forest to gather and stuff a bunch of shadows into him to defeat Moria (I count Oars as part of Moria’s skill set since it’s created with his ability)

Doflamingo: Luffy would’ve died to Doffy if the Dressrosa citizens didn’t protect him for 10 minutes while he was regaining his stamina/haki + Doffy was carrying Trebol in the 2v2 against Luffy/Law

Katakuri: Kata discarded Mole (his spear) to have a more equal/honorable duel with Luffy + he literally just gave up at the end bc he wanted Luffy to come back and beat Big Mom

Kaido: Bro fought a dozen other people + beat Luffy twice + was carrying an island + stated that he chose not to dodge Bajrang Gun

Dunno if this trend will continue from now on since we’re in the final saga from here on but “Luffy beat him so he’s stronger” is a shit argument when Luffy often needs help or has circumstances that allow him to overcome enemies who are stronger than him