I fail to see why hype is so important in debates, but I can see how it can be relevant in the plot. By hype, no one alive compares to Hashirama, but if you take out hype, Hiruzen would be stronger because Hiruzen stated himself, "Hey, Iruka!! Don't speak in past tense!!" when Iruka said "He WAS called the strongest..."
Anyway, I just don't take hype all that seriously with the exception of the Rikudou Sennin because he defeated the Juubi and sealed it in him, as well as possessed the Rinnegan and we've already seen some of the Rinnegan's powers. I don't think we've seen all of its powers, so we'll see how powerful it truly is.