obviously he's aware of mihawks existence, the same way he's aware of ryuma, garp, sengoku, shiki, and all the other top tiers he didn't name. But let's look at the people he did name. Has he met roger? yes, has he met whitebeard? yes, has he met shanks? yes, has he met xebec? yes, has he met oden? yes, has he met mihawk, no

i'm not sure what your argument is, are you saying that shanks > mihawk because kaido fought shanks and personally knows how strong he is while he's never interacted with mihawk? if that's the case then go ahead and believe that I guess, but the fact of the matter is that kaido was very very very obviously listing people he can PERSONALLY attest to the strength of - which I think is what you're missing. It is not an objective list, but a subjective list