I think either Gero is full of shit, which wouldn't be really so heavily leaned on Gero making constant miscalculations, but on the fact he thought absorbing Piccolo's suppressed energy once more would give him the edge vs Vegeta. That's just very hard to accept and almost impossible to represent numerically. Gero already got swiftly beated up by Piccolo... And then Vegeta is some levels above Piccolo... How does absorbing a power described by Piccolo as "nothing" make him climb up two tiers of power? Were it only his statement that absorbing the earthlings would give him the advantage vs Vegeta, then yeah, I could take that into account, but the stuff with suppressed Piccolo just make it seem to me theremwas something wrong with Gero's estimations.
Either that, or the way his absorption works is more than a simple addition. Since Yamcha, who was initially confused with a Goku that they believe didn't make unbelievable progress since the battle on Earth was said to be a good source of energy, maybe it'd be more than a simple sum. Or 19 absorbing Goku's KMHMH for instamce... Had the absorptions worked as simple additions, 19 post KMHMH would, like, blow initial sick SSJ Goku out of the water since, even assuming the KMHMH doesn't yield a 2x increase, it'd still be at least equivalent to absorbing all of sick SSJ Goku's power and adding it to 19's regular base... Didn't seem to be the case.
So overall, I find complications in abiding to this power statement, while it's still a statement clearly laid out, it doesn't mesh well overall with the other implications.
And yeah, for having base > Piccolo I'd need to make the adult base Saiyans incredibly strong and have to justify why the base kids would look so weak in comparison. I'd slso need an incredible small SSJ multiplier due to having base >>> CGs Piccolo while <<<< SSJ... And since there's a clear cap on their improvement in those 7 years, I find it convoluted to grasp their base would improve so off sync with the SSJ. Easier for me to just explain the Vegeta's statement on the spaceship as him not knowing Piccolo was there, or that Gohan expected Piccolo to use some proportional powers to their base powers, since he knows Piccolo isn't there wanting to absolutely win the thing, he's like happy Goku is coming back and he wants to switch hands for old times. I doubt Piccolo would fell nice KO'ing Goku and Gohan while they can't use SSJ, and taking the W over an obvious handcap they had. He isn't the type for such. 18 would be the type for it tho, so yeah, I'd say their implications in winning with 18 there stand.
And I found a comfortable spot for Kaioshin lately which I haven't changed in a while. He'd be up there with SSJ CGs Goku and way below Cell, Dabura and ppl beyond. I used to follow your Kaioshin was <<<<<< Piccolo and I find it has a very good logic supporting it, the breakdowns you guys made in the past putting Piccolo >>>>> Kaioshin = trash were very well done. I think I'm board with the usual, Kaioshin had PTSD and was cautious, not thinking straightly, being the guy that maybe would fear even a Saibaiman if they had a M in the forehead... And that Kaioshin was back to the God one when fighting fat Boo.
Sorry for wanking Kaioshin that high haha