Why scaling matters

[super michael]

Goku and Vegeta training with a Angel made their base from stronger than the Z fighters in RoF.
Freeza in his 1st form could beat the entire Z fighters, except Goku and Vegeta. Freeza needed his final form to challenge Base Goku and Base Vegeta.

So training with a Angel does increase their Base form and other transformation. Base Cabba is stronger than Final Form Freeza at least.

Base Copy Vegeta beat SSJ3 Gotenks like he was nothing.

RoF Piccolo struggled with a guy said to be above Zarbon. RoF is a big mess that makes no sense at all. Besides, they were conceived as standalone features, Goku never absorbs SSG in the manga, and does and doesn't in the anime, depending on the source of the episode, (if it was from a Toei exclusive mini arc, he does; if it was Toriyama exclusive arc he does not).
The RoF feats can also be explained by The God Beyond Base, a god ki-fueled state only seen in filler episodes, in RoF and never again.

Base Trunks does not surpass RoF Freeza, yet he fights evenly with a Black arc Goku. The GBB had been dropped by that time, those feats were due to that hybrid state.
Cabba needed SS2 to survive Freeza in the ToP, even though they both had grown stronger. He should be eating Freeza's heart with a 100x boost on top of already being stronger, don't you agree? Base Cabba is not touching RoF Freeza.
In the manga, Caulifla, even stronger than Cabba, needs SS to fight ToP Freeza.
Gokube just brought up another example from the ToP, discrediting the notion that the filler episodes set the tone for the entire show across every medium.

It’s extremely obtuse to put more weight on the early developments than on the later ones, especially when the latter explicitly override them. Treating early or filler content as gospel is just cherry-picking.

It’s not a retelling of actual events, therefore we can, and probably must, weed out the outliers, since it isn’t a anime-only discussion, the entire show needs to be included, and the manga has been scale-cheking the movies, just like the main arcs have been scale-checking the filler episodes of the anime.

Not everything counts, we already did that shit with DBZ, we don't pretend Goku arrived in two spaceships to Earth, right? even though filler episodes imply so.

Even Toei values the main arcs more than their own filler, yet some fans will do the opposite and kid themselves into thinking literally everybody can oneshot Buuhan because it supports the notion that DBS doesn't make sense. DBS only makes sense when viewed as a whole, not just through anime filler.

I am aware about RoF mess, even the movie when Freeza predicts he would reach 1,300,000 power level doesn't make sense at all. On Namek in his 1st form, he has 530,000 power level and his 2nd form has over 1,000,000 power level. So what by making his 1st form 1,300,000 he surpassed everyone except Goku and Vegeta in his first form.

Is there any official statement that they dropped The God Beyond Base? Plus if they dropped it, that would mean they nerfed Goku and Vegeta by a lot.
The anime writing should have put more effort into their writing. It is like they didn't communicate with each other. One episode berserk LSSJ Kale is stronger than SSB Goku, then in her controlled and stronger LSSJ she is struggling against SSJ2 Goku.

DBS isn't following the manga, so how can we ignore filler?

Toriyama clearly changed his mind about Goku absorbing the power of ssjg into his base when the series went past the movies, but his notes didn't inform the anime writers. I refuse to believe that little bug who was hard to hit in the TOP etc, who were a threat to Goku in base, is stronger than Boohan.

Basil was also a threat to Goku. The same Basil who got battered by Mr Boo, before Boo had done any training (his training is ludicrous) and this was a powered up Basil. How can Basil lose to Mr Boo but be a threat to a godly base+++ Goku?

17's gains are funny when you think about it because not only is the 'he's been training since Cell' non specific and provides no clarity on what stimulus he could possibly get by himself, on Earth, considering how strong he already is, but when you think about it logically, it throws other things into chaos. When someone starts training, he'd get his newbie gains. With no new Gods and training methods like Goku got to make huge new leaps later in his life, 17's biggest gains should be at the START of his Earth training. So he had 7 years of that before Boo arrived. So why didn't a ssjg tier 17 show up and crush Boo into nothing?

Yes exactly they didn't communicate with each other clearly, that is the problem.

The same with SSB Goku being even to C17, then later on Base Goku > C17 in the Black Hole.

[Almighty Majin]

I think the biggest problem with the power scaling in Super is that there is no proper comparison to the Buu arc or even Z in general.

Let's look at Battle of Gods. Beerus is introduced and makes short work of SSJ3 Goku, beats up Majin Buu, and makes Gohan and Gotenks look like a joke. Goku doubts the success of fusion working against Beerus and has to resort to achieving the legendary form that is Super Saiyan God. In a vacuum this is all good, but the problem is that Beerus is later on shown to be stronger than any mortal fighter in Super so Battle of Gods is not a good indicator for how Super era characters compare to Z.

In Resurrection F, Freeza returns stronger than ever after training for the first time in his life. This arc suffers from Freeza never truly fighting in his first form and then fighting base Goku in his true form. We have an idea that Freeza is vaguely stronger than Piccolo and Gohan in his first form, but Piccolo is out here losing to guys who should be Zarbon level and Gohan is at the rustiest he has ever been so that does not help much. All we know is that Golden Freeza is stronger than SSJB Goku and Vegeta individually that is about as concrete as it gets.

I think the biggest mistake is not allowing Buu to fight. I think that if we saw Buu participate in the battle against Freeza's army on Earth and in the U6 Tournament, we would have had a better idea as to where DBS characters stand in terms of power. The reluctance to use Buu just really makes the power levels unnecessarily vague. At best, you could argue that the omission of Buu means that he is too powerful, but they could have easily showcased this by having him actually fight. Instead, we are stuck in this limbo of not really knowing what would happen if Buu actually participated. If Buu could put up a fight against first form Freeza in RoF or defeat some of the U6 contestants, we would have a much clearer idea on where some of these characters stand.

[Hugo Boss]

I am aware about RoF mess, even the movie when Freeza predicts he would reach 1,300,000 power level doesn't make sense at all. On Namek in his 1st form, he has 530,000 power level and his 2nd form has over 1,000,000 power level. So what by making his 1st form 1,300,000 he surpassed everyone except Goku and Vegeta in his first form.

Is there any official statement that they dropped The God Beyond Base? Plus if they dropped it, that would mean they nerfed Goku and Vegeta by a lot.
The anime writing should have put more effort into their writing. It is like they didn't communicate with each other. One episode berserk LSSJ Kale is stronger than SSB Goku, then in her controlled and stronger LSSJ she is struggling against SSJ2 Goku.

DBS isn't following the manga, so how can we ignore filler?

There’s never been an explicit statement dropping “God Beyond Base” (base form being god-tier after absorbing the Super Saiyan God power), but the way characters are written from the Champa arc onwards just doesn’t support it consistently. In some episodes, base Goku and Vegeta are trading blows with gods, and in others, they’re struggling against opponents that should be beneath even Namek Freeza-tier. That inconsistency suggests the writers used the idea selectively without telling the audience or each other. So yeah, it’s hard to ignore these “filler” inconsistencies when they’re baked into the main narrative. It’s part of why power scaling in Super TV anime is such a challenge to pin down.

[Koitsukai]

I am aware about RoF mess, even the movie when Freeza predicts he would reach 1,300,000 power level doesn't make sense at all. On Namek in his 1st form, he has 530,000 power level and his 2nd form has over 1,000,000 power level. So what by making his 1st form 1,300,000 he surpassed everyone except Goku and Vegeta in his first form.

Is there any official statement that they dropped The God Beyond Base? Plus if they dropped it, that would mean they nerfed Goku and Vegeta by a lot.
The anime writing should have put more effort into their writing. It is like they didn't communicate with each other. One episode berserk LSSJ Kale is stronger than SSB Goku, then in her controlled and stronger LSSJ she is struggling against SSJ2 Goku.

DBS isn't following the manga, so how can we ignore filler?

There's no need for one. That "state" was only seen in RoF, and then in filler episodes. The main arcs reverted their base power to something akin to what the manga was having: vaguely above their pre-DBS levels.
They were nerfed after having been extremely buffed up, it's hard to keep the tension going when the MCs are worlds above everybody else, while keeping everything else involved.

The takeaway is that Toriyama, as seen in Toyo's manga, probably decided to drop that whole SSG having being absorbed in base(or was convinced to, most likely he didn't give a shit), a change that probably happened after the anime green-lit that development, IDK, I'm just guessing here. And although they stick to the notes in the main arcs, they went back to their crazy scaling in filler episodes without a care in the world. The ToP had plenty of that as you pointed out with that Black Hole scene.

Either that movie-only, filler-only state is removed or literally everybody is miles ahead of BoG SSG, not just stronger, miles ahead.

Of course we can ignore filler, DBS follows Toriyama's notes as the manga does, DBS is still a Toriyama story.
So, those episodes that did not follow his notes but some director's notes should not supersede the main notes that dictate the actual story.

Trunks, a year prior was about as strong as Dabura, cannot be now 400x stronger than BoG SSG... it makes no sense. Piccolo, in one arc, went from struggling with Tagoma to fighting people that forced the supposedly God in Base Goku turn SS?
Buu is another thing, he keeps being brought up as some great ally... could he be one, could he really be better than others, if they could oneshot him as easily as Yamcha? Buu falling asleep then is irrelevant, he is fodder like the rest next to Goku.

it's clearly not the authorial intent but the result of the many contradictions never addressed by the anime writing staff.
Either we discard the filler or we die on the hill of "DBS makes no sense even though dropping some problematic, non-Akira episodes would make everything add up just fine".

[Cipher]

1) I agree with the thrust of the thread. A sense of relative strength and progression of strength is important to the basic tension of Dragon Ball. Not actually reducing things to nitty-gritty numbers or calculations or anything, but the stakes of the series really live and die on communicating a basic understanding of who is stronger than who and how hard it would be to close any gaps. This is something mostly communicated excellently, and largely non-verbally, in the original manga.

2) Super, as a manga, struggles with this somewhat more than the original series, but not by much, really. Bat an eye at Gohan or #17's leaps all you want, but at least they're highlighted and given context, and really everything else is quite straight forward and easy to follow save for maybe Vegeta vs. Black. Leaps are largely contextualized, pointed out, and accompanied by some form of novel training, transformation, or explanation of where refinement of technique is doing more work than an actual great leap in strength (ex. much of the talk surrounding Ultra Instinct and the Super Hero (movie and manga arc) Jiren conversation).

Super, as an anime, is so wildly inconsistent with everything from its very starting point, coming off of the movies' God-power absorption and seeming to adhere to it or drop it at will, that I think it's genuinely impossible to have a conversation about its power-scaling or even really feel like you have your head wrapped around it as a viewer. It just isn't worth touching this conversation without turning to the manga version instead. However, I think Koitsukai is basically on the money in that, if you must do it, you have to draw a distinction between Super's macro-level plot points in major arcs working off of Toriyama outlines and its between-arc filler episodes and little character spotlights clearly doing their own thing. I know the whole "Well, it wasn't based on a manga, so how can it have 'filler'?" question comes up, but that strikes me as being needlessly obtuse. It obviously has beats and episodes working from Toriyama's materials and those that are entirely stemming from studio premises or doing a lot of embellishment. And the scalings implied by these different modes of the series are often at odds.

Basically, to make sense of the anime, you have to be willing to focus on the forest and ignore the trees. But it is definitely a failure of its production either way that, in a series where understanding relative character strengths basically is the plot a lot of the time, it makes itself so inconsistent and obtuse.

[Mystic-han]

Welcome to dragon ball post Raditz arrival

[Hugo Boss]

Welcome to dragon ball post Raditz arrival

If we’re being reductive, sure. But that kind of blanket “DB’s always been like this” take mostly dodges the point. The issue isn’t that things got bigger, it’s that the mechanics of growth and relative power lost clarity. That wasn’t nearly as much of a problem post-Raditz as it is post-Ressurection F. Super (anime) sometimes forgets what it escalated from.

[nineko]

The problem with Dragon Ball is the same problem of the Pokémon videogames. How convenient that you face progressively stronger Pokémon while you get farther and farther from Pallet Town, here, face a Pidgey and a Rattata and a bunch of bugs since your journey just started, you'll find level 30s a few cities down the road. Ash was lucky to have been born in the right place, unless you're implying that humans are only allowed to breed in Pallet Town, because I'm not sure how the story would play out for a 10-year old kid from (say) Lavender Town or Cinnabar Island.

Similarly, Goku has been conveniently lucky in both time and space. What if Goku met Tenshinhan or Tao Pai Pai instead of Yamcha? He was strong, much stronger than most people, but not stronger than them at that point. Goku had a thousand ways to prematurely end his journey. What if Pilaf freed Piccolo Daimaoh a year sooner? What if Raditz came to Earth a year sooner?

The more you think about it, the more Bardok's wish makes sense in retrospect. "Hey Toronbo, make sure that Kakaroth only faces opponents with an adequate power level at any given time".

[Mystic-han]

Welcome to dragon ball post Raditz arrival

If we’re being reductive, sure. But that kind of blanket “DB’s always been like this” take mostly dodges the point. The issue isn’t that things got bigger, it’s that the mechanics of growth and relative power lost clarity. That wasn’t nearly as much of a problem post-Raditz as it is post-Ressurection F. Super (anime) sometimes forgets what it escalated from.

That's not the point , it's not "DB was always like this" it's the story post Raditz became very problematic with power level and power creep

Goku for example literally became 340,000x stronger in 1 Year with majority of his power up coming from Zenkai and a rage boost

[Haighter]

Welcome to dragon ball post Raditz arrival

If we’re being reductive, sure. But that kind of blanket “DB’s always been like this” take mostly dodges the point. The issue isn’t that things got bigger, it’s that the mechanics of growth and relative power lost clarity. That wasn’t nearly as much of a problem post-Raditz as it is post-Ressurection F. Super (anime) sometimes forgets what it escalated from.

That's not the point , it's not "DB was always like this" it's the story post Raditz became very problematic with power level and power creep

Goku for example literally became 340,000x stronger in 1 Year with majority of his power up coming from Zenkai and a rage boost

The leaps in power were ridiculous, sure, but the relative power of fighters was usually quite apparent and consistent. The only substantial points of contention appear in the Boo arc when Toriyama was extremely burnt out. Prior to that, power progression was almost always intelligible, even if the exact extent of the power increases didn't always feel "logical" or "earned" in hindsight.

[super michael]

Welcome to dragon ball post Raditz arrival

If we’re being reductive, sure. But that kind of blanket “DB’s always been like this” take mostly dodges the point. The issue isn’t that things got bigger, it’s that the mechanics of growth and relative power lost clarity. That wasn’t nearly as much of a problem post-Raditz as it is post-Ressurection F. Super (anime) sometimes forgets what it escalated from.

That's not the point , it's not "DB was always like this" it's the story post Raditz became very problematic with power level and power creep

Goku for example literally became 340,000x stronger in 1 Year with majority of his power up coming from Zenkai and a rage boost

Goku did intense training on his way to Namek, along with getting zenkai from his training. Goku didn't get a rage boost, he unlocked a transform which is Super Saiyan. He didn't get a rage boost like Vegeta against Beerus or Gohan vs Raditz.

Goku is the only Saiyan to get his body stolen and then injured badly when he got it back.

[Hugo Boss]

Welcome to dragon ball post Raditz arrival

If we’re being reductive, sure. But that kind of blanket “DB’s always been like this” take mostly dodges the point. The issue isn’t that things got bigger, it’s that the mechanics of growth and relative power lost clarity. That wasn’t nearly as much of a problem post-Raditz as it is post-Ressurection F. Super (anime) sometimes forgets what it escalated from.

That's not the point , it's not "DB was always like this" it's the story post Raditz became very problematic with power level and power creep

Goku for example literally became 340,000x stronger in 1 Year with majority of his power up coming from Zenkai and a rage boost

Right, but you’re proving my point, not refuting it. Goku’s jump during the Saiyan and Namek arcs had clear in-story mechanisms backing it: gravity training, near-death experiences, transformations, etc. You could trace why and how the leaps happened, and the story respected those steps. The escalation was big, but it made sense within the logic the story laid out.

What I’m criticizing with Super (especially the anime) isn’t that power-ups happen, it’s that they often happen without meaningful grounding. That’s the key distinction. It’s not about how high the numbers go, it’s about whether the narrative gives you the tools to follow the climb.

[GreatSaiyaman123]

If we’re willing to embrace the gains Gohan, Freeza and 17 have made, then what’s stopping the “everyone is SSJG level” train? It’s not like the anime’s scaling makes more sense if we ignore that, does it? It’s easier to say “everybody is OP” than to say “Sometimes Goku is strong, sometimes he isn’t”.

The concept of a literal god base was abandoned with SSJG’s return, but the power level implications are something else. Saying base Goku isn’t god level is like saying he can’t destroy a planet - just because the story isn’t focusing on it, doesn’t mean it’s not true anymore.

The manga plays it safe on the base corner, but it’s much harder to follow in order aspects. Anyone saying it isn’t is flat out lying. The manga version of the Goku Black Saga is a complete chaos. Say SSJ2 Vegeta kept his rage boost as much as you want, this is as confirmed as God-level base Cabba. Just a conclusion we come to based on a feat that shouldn’t be possible.

[Hugo Boss]

Nobody’s denying that characters like 17 and Freeza got massive gains, it’s how those gains are presented. The difference is between a story that acknowledges and builds up those leaps (like 17 training for years, Freeza pushing his body beyond its limits or Gohan unlocking hidden potential) and a story that supposedly implies every side character is suddenly “god tier” with no explanation or narrative impact.

If everyone is SSG level now without background, then what does SSG even mean anymore? That’s the problem. If power tiers get so loose they stop carrying tension, the story suffers. Tension in DB has always come from understanding how far behind someone is, even if the jump is huge, like Goku vs. Freeza, there’s a system at play. That system breaks down when power becomes arbitrary or invisible.

As for the manga: it’s not flawless. The Goku Black arc was definitely messy, especially early on. But I’d still argue that its framework for progression is more internally consistent than the anime implying that Cabba, in base, might be stronger than Vegetto and nobody reacts.

So, the issue isn’t “how strong everyone is”, it’s how well the story communicates it. Super drops the ball there, especially in the anime. That’s the point.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

If everyone is SSG level now without background, then what does SSG even mean anymore?

The only time SsjG held any weight was in the movie it debuted in, while SsjB achieved absolutely nothing since its introduction. UI is slowly becoming the new Ssj1, with more and more characters reaching that level of power. I expect Krillin to fight evenly with Jiren level threats once the manga returns, as it seems like the writers are mandated to include everyone in everything now, regardless of logic. One thing I'll give Daima credit for is returning prestige back to the Ssj forms, as you could see a clear difference between 1,2,3,&4. I also like the fact that you can easily tell where everyone is compared to one another power wise.

[GreatSaiyaman123]

If everyone is SSG level now without background, then what does SSG even mean anymore?

Nothing. SSJG is a mere stepping stone, even in its debut saga the form quickly fades into Goku's natural power. The anime follows the same frame as the first two movies, treating SSJG as just the gateway for Goku to reach further heights.

Had the form been more present and given it's proper respect, the idea of a retcon would be more feasible. Instead, it's abandoned for most of the show, and upon returning it's just a transitory step between the golden forms and SSJB.

As for the manga: it’s not flawless. The Goku Black arc was definitely messy, especially early on. But I’d still argue that its framework for progression is more internally consistent than the anime implying that Cabba, in base, might be stronger than Vegetto and nobody reacts.

I think that's more of an "external" framework, comparing characters between two different moments in time. An internal framework, in my view, is the simple understanding of how the characters on-screen compare to each other. An example of the anime messing this up is Vegeta tanking a punch from Cabba after calling him his equal, or Kale stomping SSJB Goku only to struggle with Pride Troopers and lose to SSJG Goku.

The anime does trivialize what being strong means (Not just with the god base thing, but also Goku's repeated use of SSJB), but the manga makes it hard to even follow what's going on. Here's another example from the Black Saga: When Vegeta eats a senzu, buts keeps losing to SSJ Goku Black. I think the implication is that SSJB just loses power too fast, but the fact we don't even see the fight made it look like Black was outright stronger, so when Vegeta comes up with the God-Blue switch it's undermined by a thought of "Wait, did he get stronger or not?".

[Hugo Boss]

If everyone is SSG level now without background, then what does SSG even mean anymore?

The only time SsjG held any weight was in the movie it debuted in, while SsjB achieved absolutely nothing since its introduction. UI is slowly becoming the new Ssj1, with more and more characters reaching that level of power. I expect Krillin to fight evenly with Jiren level threats once the manga returns, as it seems like the writers are mandated to include everyone in everything now, regardless of logic. One thing I'll give Daima credit for is returning prestige back to the Ssj forms, as you could see a clear difference between 1,2,3,&4. I also like the fact that you can easily tell where everyone is compared to one another power wise.

Saying Krillin is going to fight Jiren-level threats evenly is just taking the slippery slope way too far. There’s a clear difference between saying more characters are getting stronger over time (which is normal in a long-running shonen) and saying everyone is casually god-tier by default now. That’s not what we’ve seen.

Characters like Gohan, Freeza, Broly, and 17 surpassing SSG-level fighters makes sense within their context. These characters are portrayed with extreme potential. But that doesn’t mean we’re seeing Yamcha, Krillin, or Roshi go toe-to-toe with Toppo or Hit. You can still name, pretty clearly, the handful of characters who’ve definitely reached or surpassed SSG-level, and that list hasn’t expanded all that wildly since the Tournament of Power.

As for Daima, I wouldn’t say it’s airtight with power scaling either. There’s already disagreement on how much the Dragon Balls actually weakened Goku and Vegeta, and we’ve seen questionable matchups like Tamagami 1 losing to Doo, who then fights evenly with SS1 Mini Goku. So even Daima hasn’t avoided inconsistencies. No Dragon Ball series ever really has.

SSJG is a mere stepping stone, even in its debut saga the form quickly fades into Goku's natural power. The anime follows the same frame as the first two movies, treating SSJG as just the gateway for Goku to reach further heights.

Had the form been more present and given it's proper respect, the idea of a retcon would be more feasible. Instead, it's abandoned for most of the show, and upon returning it's just a transitory step between the golden forms and SSJB.

When I said “what does SSG even mean anymore”, I was pushing back against the idea that base or SS1 characters like Cabba could be stronger than that level without any clear development, specially when we have SS2+ level characters like Trunks, Zamasu and Goku Black below SSG Goku. You’re saying SSG is a stepping stone between golden forms and SSB, and I completely agree. That’s what I’ve been arguing. My issue is that if we start assuming everyone is casually SSG+ in base, that hierarchy gets flattened and meaningless.

I think that's more of an "external" framework, comparing characters between two different moments in time. An internal framework, in my view, is the simple understanding of how the characters on-screen compare to each other. An example of the anime messing this up is Vegeta tanking a punch from Cabba after calling him his equal, or Kale stomping SSJB Goku only to struggle with Pride Troopers and lose to SSJG Goku.

I’m using “internal” to mean within a single continuity. So when I point to inconsistencies in the anime, I’m not comparing it to the manga, I’m highlighting contradictions within its own portrayal of characters and their growth. Cabba being able to rattle Vegeta and then get no-sold right after in the same scene is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about. So is Kale blowing through SSB Goku and then struggling against the Pride Troopers or SSG Goku, none of which is given any real in-universe logic beyond “cool moment”.

The anime does trivialize what being strong means (Not just with the god base thing, but also Goku's repeated use of SSJB), but the manga makes it hard to even follow what's going on. Here's another example from the Black Saga: When Vegeta eats a senzu, buts keeps losing to SSJ Goku Black. I think the implication is that SSJB just loses power too fast, but the fact we don't even see the fight made it look like Black was outright stronger, so when Vegeta comes up with the God-Blue switch it's undermined by a thought of "Wait, did he get stronger or not?".

Vegeta losing to Black post-senzu isn’t a contradiction if you consider that Goku Black was getting zenkais through Future Zamasu after each exchange and Vegeta rapidly decreased his power output. The God-Blue switching technique, going by Goku’s explanation, gives Vegeta better control over his energy, so his “power” doesn’t necessarily increase, but his stamina and output efficiency do, fitting with the manga’s trend of refining technique over power jumps.

[Vegeta th3 4th]

Characters like Gohan, Freeza, Broly, and 17 surpassing SSG-level fighters makes sense within their context.

No one besides Broly had any business getting anywhere near SsjG's level, much less surpassing it. That form was introduced as something well beyond the capabilities of any mortal power, yet now it seems like anyone can get it by simply existing. How can you justify #17 being that strong when all he did was protect wildlife ? Does that mean the farmer with a shotgun can get that strong ?

[Hugo Boss]

I think the key point here is that characters like Gohan, Freeza, and 17 all had latent potential or unique traits that made their sudden growth plausible within the story’s own logic, even if it’s exaggerated by your standards.

Gohan literally unlocked his Ultimate form through magical means and never fully trained with it. Piccolo explicitly says that it could be pushed even further, which is exactly what happens in his fight against Kefla. So his ceiling was always much higher than what we saw before.

Freeza was the strongest being in the universe for years without training. Once he actually did put in effort, it’s consistent with his own biology and narrative history that he could make these astronomical jumps.

17 is an infinite energy android who doesn’t get tired or wear out. His strength growth isn’t constrained by stamina limits like organic fighters, and we don’t really know how much he trained or pushed himself while living in isolation protecting his island and taming beings like Cell Jrs. Given that, there’s no established reason why he couldn’t get as strong as he did.

So it’s not like “anyone” can get that strong just by existing. These are very specific individuals with very specific narrative or biological traits that set them apart from, say, the farmer with a shotgun. They were basically sleeping giants. The series is arbitrary in that sense, sure, but it’s not random. There’s a pattern and a rationale, even if it stretches believability.

[Cipher]

If we’re willing to embrace the gains Gohan, Freeza and 17 have made, then what’s stopping the “everyone is SSJG level” train? It’s not like the anime’s scaling makes more sense if we ignore that, does it? It’s easier to say “everybody is OP” than to say “Sometimes Goku is strong, sometimes he isn’t”.

The story takes time to comment clearly on the extent of Gohan, Freeza, and 17's growth, which is a matter altogether different from quietly asking us to read everyone as SSG+. It doesn't even matter why it happened; it's in the presentation.

There's a big difference between both versions taking the time to comment on what a big deal #17 is now (quite a bit of dialogue spent on it), versus just having to assume Cabba could have solved the entire Boo arc on his own via the anime's presentation (zero dialogue; no registering of any surprise that Universe 6 Saiyans would be that much wildly stronger than expected).

Dragon Ball isn't complicated, nor are my expectations for it. It just needs to communicate that a character has made a large leap or is unexpectedly powerful, if indeed that's the case. There's no question that this is done for all three of the above. In the manga, it's also done for Boo in the Moro arc (both going toe to toe with Moro and receiving dialogue from a surprised Goku and Vegeta to highlight his strength boost). It isn't done for any other characters in Super, which is why I'm fine, say, writing off all the weirdness that stems from the seeming God-power retcon in the anime (Cabba being even with a supposedly post-God-power-up Vegeta; Trunks later fighting evenly against a supposedly post-God-power Goku, with absolutely no commentary on anything being surprising about him other than having reached SS2), and have equally, on this very board, cautioned people about making wild assumptions based on Piccolo's visual performance in the back half of the Moro arc, also unaccompanied by dialogue in the vein the above three receive.

When there's a big jump, someone will tell us (or the story will otherwise very clearly communicate it), and I'll accept it. If no one does, it didn't happen.

So it has been, so it shall be. There have been little foibles and head-scratchers in relative strength presentation along the way (found mainly in the Boo arc in Dragon Ball and Future Trunks arc in Super), but the way it's presented major jumps where and when they're supposed to have happened has never really been inconsistent or in doubt.

At least in both manga series. On the Super anime, I think if you have the ability to figure out why you should dismiss Yamcha schooling Olibu in Boo arc filler, you have it in you to figure out why you should dismiss any scene-by-scene weirdness it throws at you and focus on sussing out the macro-scale intent. (Or just go off the manga, which gives it to you.)