Like I said, judging by actual feats shown ingame Richter is obviously the most powerful
I think there should be some distinction between feats and gameplay abilities. Feats are defeating Dracula twice and without allies. Gameplay abilities are launching into a high jump when the player presses down, up and X.
Richter has movement abilities like that in such games as
Symphony of the Night and
Portrait of Ruin, while his only one in
Rondo of Blood and
The Dracula X Chronicles was the somersault. Was he supposed to be stronger in the stories where he couldn't beat Alucard or (as the whip's memory) Jonathan than he was when he beat a full-power Dracula, or is it just that exploring a Metroidvania requires abilities that a Classicvania doesn't need? Is Leon enormously more skilled with the whip than his descendents, or do 3D hack & slashers simply need combos to stay interesting?
Look at Simon... he can only jump and whip and throw sub-weapons in his various classic games, but put him in
Harmony of Despair and he's suddenly defying gravity and shooting magic fireballs with the best of them, and when Simon's in
Judgment he gets to break out into fancy combos. The other Belmonts haven't gotten the chance to strut their stuff in every style of gameplay, but we can expect that their abilities would also reflect the type of game they're in.
I don't want to just ignore gameplay abilities, but going strictly by them, Trevor circa 1476 is weaker than Jonathan circa 1944, and who wants to live in a world where Trevor is weaker than Jonathan?