What it amounts to for me is this.

Did Palan have some unfair advantages to get rolling that we probably wouldn't let slide today? That's probably true.

For all of that, he is still often the standard I compare A-Ps to. The bar might be set unfairly high by Palan, but it's still the bar.

Really this is more about reputation than numbers. There was just such a feeling among the players at the time Palan got rolling that this was the guy to beat. This was the kind of character that many veteran players realized they just could not beat with the character they were playing at the time. People hatched schemes to kill Palan, most of which would have required him to be stupid to succeed, and he wasn't.

In more recent history, I'd say Nabburak nearly achieved that kind of notoriety (despite probably being a tougher character overall). Few come even that close.