It’s especially crazy when you have like two examples, one in game and one prior, dedicated to showing you “When exhausted, they’re substantially easier to beat.”
Vergil went from capable of one-shotting Arkham and incapable of being hurt by him to getting bodied by Arkham (alongside Dante AND Lady).
When Dante was exhausted, Vergil, Dante’s DIRECT equal, literally easily parried his attacks and sent him flying.
Like, actual, objective evidence says Nero got a much easier fight than Dante did. Something that matches the presentation of the fight, too.