you are wrong a little bit... As likeitmuch said, experienced haki users who have good grasp on CoC can pick people whom they want to affect and whom they want remain unaffected..
Evidence: rayleigh said that training with CoC is neccessary because if not, you can overpower everyone around you,even innocent bystandershttp://www.mangareader.net/103-56928-15/one-piece/chapter-597.html ...last panel
{whether they survive/counter that with strong will Is totally different matter...and also CoC and CoA are two different things.. You don't need haki to counter CoC but just strong will or intentionally spared by user(just like rayleigh did with luffy crew, coz he wanted to talk and meet his crew and skip the unimportant people .ike other people in auction house) but CoA can be countered using CoA as we saw in the war...}
in the auction house... Some were spared(ussop ,chopper,caimie,hachi etc.) some resisted (luffy,zoro ,etc.) and other guys like kidd's crew and law crew survived on their own will(not haki counter,haki counter applies only in CoA)which surprised rayleigh as he said they were not just some amateurs :
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... He intended to overpower them as well but they survived that burst...
you cannot put him in noob category as well... Seeing how he took out 50000 fishmen in one haki burst... IMO he is in level between vice admiral and admiral in terms of haki... Still this doesn't mean it applies to all three haki, he may have or may not have developed all three haki equally...
