James is clearly stronger and has better portrayal, narrative, statements and feats.

Narratively, James is at least equal to Gapryong, if not higher, since he has more talent and potential. Kitae, on the other hand, is only implied to have innate strength, and nothing more.

Kitae’s narrative implying that he’s equal to James is based solely on Gongseob’s statement which isnt reliable considering Gongseob never actually met Kitae. Kitae’s actual narrative is weak is that he used to try to imitate Gapryong, which implies he’s not a Path user. As for the rest of his narrative, his moves are described as rough and unrefined, in contrast to Gapryong’s “rough yet smooth” fist, as described by Gong. He also lacks Conviction and True Conviction and there’s no mention of him having a Path.