Why not? The only people available to copy are right in front of them. It was not specified as to whether or not Protege' has been in contact with abstracts. If he has, then yes protege' is on another level. If not, they are on equal playing fields unless there is something I'm missing. If so, then, I'll change my stance if in fact a more valid argument is presented.
is this good enough
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prot%C3%A9g%C3%A9_%28comics%29
In the 31st century of Earth-691, the Living Tribunal was nearly usurped by the Protégé, whose abilities to duplicate the powers of others allowed him to manifest the Living Tribunal's own power. The Guardians of the Galaxy struggled futilely against Protégé, and the Living Tribunal itself with help of others wasn't able to defeat it and stated that any and all realities rest on Protégé's shoulders. Protégé claims to have become not the new Living Tribunal, but the new One-Above-All[1] (the Tribunal was later retconned as a mere manifestation body‎[2]). It was a Celestial named Scathan the Approver who saved all realities by judging against him. The Living Tribunal then absorbed the Protégé into itself to prevent him from endangering all realities again.[3]
Protege starts with his normal power...
Under his own normal Power and intellect he was an ignorant child. Well considering it was after studying with mephisto and then beyonder that he got powerful enough to stand in the same room as the living tribunal...
Team for stomp as the kid had no idea how to do anything until the beyonder and mephisto taught him.