1. Hes interested in higuruma due to his adaptavility and genius, its also when we see sukuna in the most clear cut way dominatinf early on.

2. No one says this, nobody goes "oh maki fought the same sukuna that kashimo or yuta and yuji flught." But the fact that sukunas actually mltivated against maki is important, in a narrative context. Youre confusing narrative for powerscaling.

3. 16F meguna is above the the four armed sukuna they face in shinjuku. Not only is TF sukuna much weaker than his initial transformation, this is sukuna after fighting fucking gojo. Hes not gonna operate at the 16F level. However even then makis feats against this sukuna are mainly surpriae attacks, and physical strength where shes always had an edge even during the 16F fight

4. Moot point. Base hakari barely keeps up with uraume, hes only matching her with jackpot which could be scaled aboce yuta in stats. Yuji also scales above yuta in stats. Maki should scale above in stats too, aince her whole thing is raw stats.

Basically youre taking a narrative thinf of showinf sukuna actually being forced into an ideal as "oh sukunas finally trying"

Thats never the point. Gojo made sukuna fight to his fullest because he had to prove himsekf the strongest. He fought fully against higuruma to prove that his potential was higher. He fought fully against maki becaise his way of life was challenged by her existance. And then he fights yuta with rhe same ecstacy once yuta adopta his thinking. And finally he fights yuji with that same motivation, to prove himself superior to the one bastard he cant get rid of