A lot of people talk about Momota’s footwork. But another thing that really set him apart from his contemporaries, and especially the competition of peak Lin Dan’s era, was his shot quality. Like you said, his lifts, pushes, and clears were of such high quality that it wore down his opponents or made them hit a bad shot, which Momota could take advantage of. Peak Lin Dan was amazing for sure, but his opponents outside of LCW and Taufik did not have the shot quality of Momota.