L was smarter than Light , the author even mentioned it
comon man.. Light did not know what to do anymore so he basically had to ask a God Of Death 'kill that person' that shows u how inferior he was
Also Light was just a paranoia pathetic individual , like Near said 'nothing more than a mass murderer' he clearly lost his mental state at the end, he probably could not cope anymore with everything he had done, as u could see how he was begging to Ryuk to save him.. so pathetic.. that scared face when he was remembering back ? wtf was that. At the end he realized the DN was a curse