I think you aren't taking it far enough- with the ryouga example, he could probably very easily do the belt sword trick.
It most likely means "if you can do it, I will understand it and be able to reproduce it, but probably won't bother unless its better then what I normally use."
Also, Herb is very clearly supposed to be a curbstomp opponent- when Cologne is like "no, seriously, DO NOT FUCK WITH THIS GUY, hell I don't even fuck with this guy", it's serious business. The fight is clearly highlighting that power level isn't as important as adaptability, and adaptability is basically the core of Anything Goes.
It's a fight highlighting why exactly Anything Goes is so darn good, not highlighting Ranma's personal strength.
The comedic/slapstick arcs skew physical strength all over the place, but the martial arts chapters all blatantly make clear that Ranma's strength lies in his incredible adaptations of other techniques to specifically counter his current opponent. Revising the Hiryu Shoten Ha wins most of his fights, really.