I think Ran'jit was overall handled better in the story.

He does have the annoying 'you lose now' moment and somehow we're able beat him at the end because...I guess just vertical mmo power scaling, but where Zenos is basically portrayed as untouchable, Ran'jit is presented as a threat but like he has to actually try and feels like he can be thwarted. Instead of 'beats you easily, beats you easily, oh you're level 70 now so you can beat me' we see him having to flee when Titania attacks his forces, we see Thancred dunk on him and knock him into the hole, we're able to fight him in an apparantly even enough match before that when the viera stun him so we can get further inside, then Thancred is able to beat him going all out before we finally fight him.

I think I may have liked Zenos better in SB if he was closer to that. Someone strong and of comparable power to us but not 'no chance, no chance, okay now you can fight him' it felt a lot better with Ran'jit. It also helps that unlike Zenos he had an actual stake in the plot even if we only start to see hints of that toward the end. My only real issue with Ran'jit is I feel like he should have died after the duel with Thancred, leaving Vauthry floundering on what to do without him to better explain the disorganized state we find Eulmore in. The final duel with him doesn't really add anything except I guess making us feel strong because we lost to him before I guess.