You misunderstand me. I never said Whitebeard's ability to do battle never decreased between his prime and the war, I said the potency of his Quakes received no indication that they decreased in any capacity between his prime and the war, so all that Pokemon shit is irrelevant.
The point of my post was that Akainu and Whitebeard's methods of offense are on par with each other. The fact that they were using their powers through physical movement and still matched each other showed their speed and reflexes were on par until WB's illness hit. Akainu has shown he has the ability to cleave through Whitebeard's body, so he can bypass his durability, and vice versa. Intelligence doesn't play that large a role in either of their fighting styles, so that covers pretty much all of the bases.Meaning they're much closer than you think they are.
The reason they had so much time is because One Piece is, above all else, a story. Every arc that Oda does always has hefty story to it in one way or another. Marineford wasn't just a war and action, it was the story of Whitebeard, hence why it was all called the Whitebeard Saga. The focus between WB and Squard is just part of the overall story of Whitebeard and his most defining trait: His love for his children. There was focus on Squard not because his blow significantly caused WB's ability to do battle to decline, but because Oda was telling the story of Whitebeard's love for his children.
In the second fight, Akainu got jumped and was able to spring back up and take half of Whitebeard's head as though the attack didn't even hit him. Whitebeard then destroyed the ground, Akainu fell, and resurfaced with the strength to take on countless pirates without missing a single beat. It could not be more clear that the second bout between WB and Akainu didn't affect him as much as you think it does. Otherwise, that just makes WB's crew weak as shit if Akainu really was severely injured, and he could fend off their top fighters and dozens of them all at once without gaining more injuries.
It's also important to note that Akainu was caught by surprise. By your logic, Caesar is far stronger than Luffy and the Scotch Brothers are far stronger than Zoro because the formers defeated the latters through surprise attacks.