Goku was a strong warrior before super sayian even came about. In his childhood days he was already mastering moves like the kamehameha. Kakashi was a jounin at a really young age. without the sharingan and was a really skilled ninja. Might guy was a failure as a kid and hasn't been shown to win a fight with anyone without having to enter gates. Gates is the only thing that keeps him relevant anymore. Even though naruto has the nine tails he doesnt solely rely on that but instead has been training hard and can beat a majority of the leaf village without nine tails. How can guy be considered one of the strongest ninjas when it took him 6 gates to beat a kisame clone which was only 30 percent of his power.
Yes, Kakashi was stringer at a younger age, but that's irrelevant at this point because they're not kids anymore.
It doesn't matter if Gai needs the gates to stay relevant. By that logic, you could argue that Sasuke (Before Indra chakra) needed the sharingan to stay relevant. That's stupid because it's a part of his arsenal, so it's his to use.
Gai has access to his gates, therefore he is relevant. He also has a strong base; he trains more than Naruto... Maybe Gai was held back by his team fighting Kisame the first time. Maybe he just needed to go six gates so he could use Morning Peacock. Look underneath the underneath and all that jazz.
but i'm going to sleep now, so... cya
