Agreed, I do much the same, though I kinda wish the ex modes were the "canon" ones, with the normals being either non-canon "officially", or just your hazy recollection of them whilst caught up in the excitement of the battle.

Granted, with the WoL there is the aspect of being 9/14ths full "Overlord"-equivalent (then, 8/14ths) plus the Blessing of Light, which is a truly formidable combination, but there are clearly ways you can still blindside the character besides overwhelming them through sheer power and Ran'jit was one case of this. Trying to put it all down to pure "power levels" is probably a fool's errand in this regard.