Many *legendary* players *never* reach the top 5 so I am happy you have such a high standard for Kanak - Mizutani for example has only hit the WR of 4 once and I think Harimoto is barely there.  Freitas I think peaked at 7.  Maze peaked at 8.  Gauzy and Niwa have never been there.  Karakasevic was never even in the top 20.  Neither was Bojan Tokic, and people will never tell you that those aren't world class players.  Lack of power on the forehand is one aspect of the game, there are many good players with relatively less powerful forehands, the one that comes to mind for me is Lin Gaoyuan and another is Koki Niwa.  

Quadri Aruna has a relatively crappy backhand, and he managed to get to the quarter finals of the Olympics with that backhand.  Even imbalanced styles survive in table tennis, the issue is when we allow that to exclusively define our appreciation of a player rather than the results that show the story is much more interesting than that.  

Kanak's overall game lacks the kind of power that you would expect for top level table tennis but this was a criticism of CCY  as well and CCY has had a great career and is Kanak's role model.  Kanak has beaten and outperformed many of the European players with the more powerful forehands at this stage of his career.  Yet you hear many people point out that this European player who Kanak has reliably outperformed has more potential than Kanak just because his forehand is more powerful than Kanak.  Which means that Kanak must be doing a lot of other things that that player doesn't do but which don't get appreciated because...  Kanak doesn't fit the description.

And I think that is the issue people have with Kanak - he doesn't fit the description.

At 19 yrs old WCQ is the leading player to compete against TH Lin Truls 3-4 years from now

when XX, ML, FZ are past their prime.  He is the future of Chinese dominance.

poor reading comprehension

3-2 Pitchford, A big upset is possible now. "gauzy did it, I can do it too." seems to be the fuel that drives the pitch.

I can't believe it, he did it!!!

NOTE: Pitchford's short game is out of this world, he never got dominated there and that was one of the big keys of his match.

True, but Hari was very very close to beating xx last time, had a few match points. 

Everybody is afraid of XX's fh but it's amazing how Pitchford went there with no complex, meaning along the line and harder for his own fh, but unpredictable so the roi was higher, especially when XX was naturally positioned a bit towards his bh side; also more combos off the bounce worked than not. The short game was perfect and the game plan was of high quality. Bravo to team Pitchford.

All non-Asian and non-European players have it to some degree.  But Hugo has beaten FZD and Boll and thus gets a pass.  He also has power on both sides and his athleticism fits the description.  Kanak still doesn't have a win (and for some a playing style) that clearly fits the description.