Honestly I could agree with no scaling would be more of an issue for Namor than it would be for Aquaman. Aquaman actually has some pretty impressive feats without scaling.Surviving in the Earth’s outer core
Moving a section of a tectonic plate
Taking an attack from someone who destroyed the largest continent to exist.
Triggering a underwater lava vent by throwing his tridentAre probably the biggest stuff I can think of off the top of my head.
With scaling he has statements suggesting he’s one of the strongest people on his Earth and I honestly don’t think Ironman gets accolades like that. It’s a hard case to try and make to suggest Ironman is physically superior to Aquaman. Only arguement I could see for Ironman would be his versatility.
I pretty much agree with all of this, Iron Man actually does a have a few of "one of the strongest people on the planet" type of statements but I think it's fair to say Aquaman is closer to Superman physically than Iron Man is to Thor. Iron Man has the strength/durability to hang and can only win against top tiers if he amps himself (he's pretty damn dumb for not taking advantage of such an ability more often ngl) or exploits a weakness.
I honestly don't think Iron Man would be terribly far off from Aquaman physically to the point where his other abilities wouldn't give him an edge. Aquaman could probably defend against any of Iron Man's attacks with his trident, but Iron Man has the versatility to remove Arthur from the trident if it's too difficult for him to get around. I'd really say Tony has Aquaman's number, it just depends on how he wants to fight here.
If Iron Man is jobbing, Aquaman would break the suit in like 2 hits tbh though lmao or easily take off his helmet like Namor did that one time.