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That's not quite the case.I don't see how people just agree with something so irrelevant like portrayal. Say Kishimoto said Iruka was stronger than Itachi, yet nothing in his arsenal proved such, would you still take it as a fact that Itachi was the weaker of the two? You've got people on here that just agree with whatever Kishimoto says, even if it doesn't make sense/can be debated otherwise.
Deidara vs Sasori, Kishimoto said Deidara was the weaker of the two, yet it can be debated that Deidara can defeat Sasori etc.
Basically, portrayal doesn't mean anything in vs discussions honestly.
The fact is that we've not seen the vast majority of the battles we know character have fought.
The problem is that you'd be using an inductive argument whilst ignore evidence that ought to be considered in your argument. For instance, if we imagine the fight between the weakened sannin didn't occur and relied only on the sannin's fights their major nemesis, one would argue that if Tsunade could scramble the nervous system she would have done so in the Gokage v Madara fight. Or if Jiraiya could create a flame large enough to fry all of Pein's summons he would have in that battle. (Orochimaru really didn't do much in the sannin battle, that he doesn't do all the time. ) However, you know contrary to those arguments because you've allowed yourself to take in more context. Thus, if some context is given it should be weighed as another piece of evidence.
The question becomes how to interpret. Rather than a complete disregard for that set of information. The key isn't sophistry but interpreting. The same way the story builds on each other so does speed feats and everything else. It's all contextual.
Kishimoto never made the claim though that Iruka was stronger than Itachi. By resorting to such an extreme comparison you used the logical fallacy reductio ad absurdum. There are however times when hype is retconned. Such as Hiruzen hype in relation to him being the God of Shinobi. But this kind of retcon made sense in the depiction of Hashirama's power being considered a fairytale people assumed that he could be no stronger than Hiruzen.
That said, that doesn't mean we abandon our senses completely either. If we clearly see a feat in the manga and a source contradicts that clear feat, then the manga takes precedence as it's the primary source of cannon. Then Databooks. Then Kishimoto. Then the Anime and at the bottom of the totem pole are Kishi approved media (Naruto Hiden) and then games (Kishi has been involved in some story lines the product therefore bears his seal of approval). These provide the framework for understanding and interpreting the Narutoverse.