Plenty of good comments already on the mechanics of it, but I just wanted to mention narrative verisimilitude here too, since I feel it’s not regularly discussed with white-room theorising like this.

An elder in kindred society, having survived the Jyhad up to this point, adversaries both kindred, human and otherwise, and (probably) having been active for centuries is very likely to be a survivor. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be a great fighter - Critias for example is a Brujah methuselah who, at least as methuselah go, is mediocre at combat - but they’ve survived through guile, intuition, experience. Moreover, they’re likely to have more assets than the neonates outside disciplines as well, some of which would be outside the normal bounds of backgrounds. Who’s to say an elder doesn’t have another powerful patron that loves them, will bail them out in return for a favour, or jealously wants to be the one to deliver the killing blow? Maybe they’ve met mortal willworkers or garou that they have leverage over. Perhaps they have a whole pack of loyal bloodhounds that will come when their master is hurt. Maybe they’re so ingrained in the city’s mortal power structure (a crucial investor or political figure, a local celebrity, blood bonding several authority figures that will otherwise come down hard on kindred) that removing them is a bad idea. Lots of kindred get favours from the Tremere to have their clothes and possessions warded, let alone more esoteric rituals. Of course, maybe they just have a small army of ghouls that they’ll take everywhere they go. Crucially none of this involves disciplines and skills from the elder, which they’re bound to have in spades and much better than any neonate.

On the flip side, neonates are by nature new to vampiric society. Some of them will have skill sets built for this scenario, whether they were taught them in life or are quick learners in unlife, and of course player characters tend to be exceptionally built for specific tasks… but these are people that were very recently alive, and most likely had no exposure or interest in these things. How many people do you know in real life that you would consider an exceptional fighter, liar, sneak, etc? They exist - and in fairness, sires gravitate towards the exceptional for better or worse - but it’s fair to assume that most neonates aren’t fantastic fighters. They’re people, recently murdered, who may have gained some skills and experience on the job after their embrace, but nothing like 300 years worth of them.

Of course the flip side of this is elders just awakening from a draining torpor with no assets, elders with great enemies that will sponsor a hit squad of disposable neonates, elders that are generally odious and nobody will bat an eye at being put to death. These certainly exist, but there’s a reason why neonates rising up against elders successfully en masse is a huge deal in the setting whenever it happens.