It doesn't make sense for Makarov to be so useless in every single major battle.
Makarov is supposed to be one of the most legendary mages currently living and every time he faces off another powerful mage he just loses hard, then Fairy Tale has to make shit happen, then he comes back and suddenly, magically, he wins even though before he was totally handled.
Now if Natsu really does defeat Hades, who EASILY dominated one of the "legendary" mages Makarov (admittedly, Hades is Makarov's old master but still), what will that say about Makarov?
To me the weakness of the character Makarov is a plot hole.
I'm not saying he's a weak mage by the way, he's not, it just annoys me that he's always losing every time he fights, he gets tricked by the enemy and loses, now he gets 'lost magicd' by the enemy.
Also, I know he later did go and beat the last guild master when it was a fair 1v1, but all he did was use his signature fairy law and when that fails he's clearly useless (couldn't use it on fairy island because of mutually assured destruction).
He's like North Korea, they have some nukes so we won't invade but get rid of those nukes and there's not much power there. I always have high hopes for Makarov and then he always lets me down, I'm sorry if this offends Makarov fans but I am a Makarov fan, it's just that every time I think "wow we're going to get to see what Makarov is really made of" he gets owned easily.
Makarov's giant fist can't even KO someone by squeezing them, I mean seriously he's a giant that should have KOd the fire mage guy instantly.