Future Trunks not displaying the same potential as Gohan (Current timeline)

[BlueVegerot]

F trunks presumably was born without a tail which is a bigger advantage than someone born with it.
Vegeta when he conceived trunks was way way way stronger than goku was when he conceived gohan

Go to cell saga. Trunks spends two days in htc unlike gohan who spent only one and not only trunks way inferior to gohan in power but also goku and vegeta who as pure saiyans should have far less latent potential than he does.

Then in DBS manga we find out he trained every single day for 10 years once he went back to his timeline and he still needed the kaioshins help to defeat dabura who was said to be as strong as cell, the same cell that a 10 year old gohan handled easily.

Do you think the whole hybrid saiyan potential thing was only meant for gohan initially kind of like he was the anakin of dragonball and then goten/trunks came into play and toriyama wanted to create gotenks and promote them at that point so he once again brought back half saiyan potential?

[Lionel]

Trunks did manage to push himself by an impossibly massive amount after having returned to the past and undergoing some brief training at Capsule Corp. Severity of conditions and an earnest mindset are key elements to making impressive gains. But there does seem to be an arbitrary discrepancy in what one can achieve since Trunks had been training for decades both during and after the cyborgs' tyranny yet he's only comparable to SSJ3 Goku at first, if you want to stretch it. Granted, if you take the Copy Vegeta fight into account then the gains can be associatively interpreted in a much more grandiose light. Going from the weakest Saiyan at the Cell Games to clashing with a fighter who is three transformations above the level that was demonstably shown to be capable of making a mockery of SSJ3 Gotenks via that said fighter's rival is very good.

As a fan of Gohan, I would like to think that Gohan is truly exceptional, even by hybrid Saiyan standards. Using a more rational mindset, though, the answer to your question might be that Trunks just hasn't been given all the same opportunities that Gohan has.

[SsjCookie]

Gohan's training started when he was four, Future Trunks training when he was already a teen.
I think that has something to do with it.
A good start is half the work.

Also Gohan received training from the best (piccolo, his father , Kai) when he was still very young.
Trunks only ever had Gohan for a short time. Vegeta was never a good teacher and the kaioshin trained him when he was much older.

Trunks trained for 10 years in between and became much stronger but he did it alone and was never trained by anyone else as far as we know.