It's always bothered me just a bit that Raditz was that weak. Its fine for elite prince Vegeta to be leagues beyond the next in line Nappa with his what, 4,000-8,000? And that as an outside force Raditz was far beyond anything Earth had before… (though fireballs rose up to match his level) and Nappa then utterly crushed everyone?
Its like, how are these the most feared powerful scary guys around constantly building their power after every fight, and their top of the line strongest guy is still nothing compared to Zarbon, Dodoria, the ginyu force, and miles behind Freiza? When Nameks are considered jokes at 1,000 but able to deal surprising damage at their true 3,000?
Sure you can say Frieza's top of the line guys are outlier freaks, handpicked throughout hundreds of planets... but just how lame was Raditz that he's no better than a fodder troop they can grow?
Even with the legend of the Super Saiyan, and the giant ape transformations, why the hell was Frieza afraid of these guys who, at their best, weren't coming anywhere even close to his guys?
Granted, things get silly by the Frieza fight anyway since characters are jumping from 20,000 to 500,000 and then a million in the course of a single battle and power levels lose all meaning, but still... prior to that point the general level of things made some sense.