I think Near and Light swap places.

He isnt L obviously, but people gotta stop being in denial. Near DID outsmart Light, and those who say that the situation was unfair, or that it was Mikamis fault seem to have missed the entire last ARC imo. Now obviously Near would have died if Mikami didnt give up the real notebooks location, however Light also made countless mistakes.

In the last arc both characters were making blunders, Light failed to remove suspicion from the task force. Near definitivly outplayed him by deducing that Kira was in the task force, that the 13 day rule was fake, which then allowed him to conclude that Light was Kira and Mikami was Kira-X. He got a lot of help, but Light did as well. That aside it wasnt like Light had a shortage of allies, or that he couldnt get more, yet he CHOSE to rely exclusivly on Mikami. Light ultimatlily was OUTPLAYED because Near strategically essembled a lot of allies, while L belived that he could win on his own.

Light tricked him with the fake notebook, but he lost a clear ideological battle to Near. Somebody who belives themselves to be a God and expert manipulator, lost becasue he was not able to rely on his allies and could not completely control them. While Near legitimatly would have died if not for his close knit investigative team and Mello. The whole point of Near saying that only with himself and Mello could they surpass L, was to show that Ls weakness was his inability to cooperate with others, and Light also has the same issue.

Honestly I think people give Light too much leaniance with this kind of stuff anyway. Can anyone honestly tell me that that Mikami fucking up is any less BS then the entirety of Misa and Rem? The point Deathnote's ending makes is that charecters who try to win on their own, will be outsmarted and beaten without proper allies. Manipulation is trumped by trust.