mako was better during kickoff as well, as others have noted. the only time his fragging performance dipped in comparison to karon is when he was igling. you make it sound as if he was only superior in 2022, so if he goes back he'll still be worse than karon.
even when considering 2024, an argument can be made for mako post the regular season of stage 2. he was the most valuable player of DRX, a top 6 team, while karon performed poorly on a team that was grouped.