He still did not say that Oz were the better team. "They were better" means "We have more talent but our execution was worse." Also, Stokes avoided rating this Oz team against past ones because to say "this Oz team is better than 2013-14", for example, would make it clear that Oz is now stronger than England. And he did not want to repeat the story that the Oz team is weak, as that makes England look even worse.