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The thing is, I can understand why authors use characters like this. It's the whole "the bigger the challenge, the greater the satisfaction when the MC beats them theory". However, many authors seem to make the mistake of going overboard and making the character seem too powerful, to the point that the MC won't stand a chance against them.
This either leads to your typical DEM or Kubo ass-pull or an extended rivalry between the two, with the MC getting slightly closer each time until he finally wins at the end. The first is just annoying because it's bad plot-wise. The second I don't like, either, because I don't like sitting through match after match of the MC losing to his rival, only to get one victory in the end. It's not much of a victory when your win-loss record is 1 win, 20 losses. I think Baby Steps is like this, where the main constantly loses to his rival in the big match.
We already has a rival in the one-armed guy. We don't need another one that's so far out of Kurogane's league that there's no way of winning for another 400 chapters. It's just silly to introduce someone that strong so early in the manga.
It's like playing an RPG and being forced to fight the last boss right away in your first real battle... Getting owned and then repeating that over and over again for the whole game until you finally win. It's not really what I'd call fun.
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