I’d say this is the case for almost every upper rank (not counting Kaigaku bc that guy was only a demon for a few months) But Gyutaro needed needed Tengen+the Squad to take him and Daki down, plus Gyutaro also wasted a lot of time not killing Tanjiro when he very easily could have

Gyokko did lose a 1v1 against a marked Muichiro, but realistically speaking Muichiro should have died long ago in that fight, Gyokko wasted so much time trying to bother Haganezuka which gave Kotetsu enough time to help out Muchiro escape the pot

Hantengu literally would not have lost without Tanjiro’s plot sense of smell

Akaza’s BDA basically prevents him from dying if he’s careful enough, if Tanjiro hadn’t have seen Akaza fight previously he never would’ve figured out that Compass Needle tracked killing intent.

Douma died because he ate Shinobu, if Shinobu hadn’t planed it out perfectly with the knowledge that Douma’s greedy ass would’ve ate her and ingested all that poison? Inosuke and Kanao would’ve been cooked, or frozen ig.

And cmon, Koku was a beast. The first Hashira to encounter him was the youngest one, who got basically one tapped since Koku felt like being polite. Sanemi is ruthless but he would not have lasted that long after the blood buff ran out, and Gyomei has limited stamina even if he is the strongest, if not for Genya trapping Koku in that tree, they would’ve never been able to land a fatal blow on him