Why are we here?
"Superboy Prime (the yelling guy if he needs clarification)..." - Postmania
"...dropping an orca whale made of fire on your enemies is a pretty strong opening move." - Nik
"Why throw punches when you can be making everyone around you sterile mutant corpses?" - Pendaran, regarding Dr. Fate
Merus was a trainee angel, so he wasn't really on par with his siblings. And even when Moro had absorbed his power and fused with the earth Whis easily stopped his punch with a single finger. And despite all their upgrades Goku and Vegeta still aren't able to match Beerus, which also means that they'd stand no chance against Whis.
Now, Black Frieza was shown to be much stronger than Goku and Vegeta. That is true and means that he's closer to the power of the gods and angels. But how much closer, and if he could beat any of them, is still not certain.
Are we sure the Saiyans haven't surpassed Beerus yet? I don't recall them fighting since Goku first obtained Super Saiyan God and there's been a lot of power creep since then. It vaguely felt like the gods thought Jiren was on their level, for example. Toppo had that quasi god of destruction form Vegeta beat. And I recall someone borrowing Hakai from a god and Freiza overcoming it before rthe tournament of power. I'm not religiously following the series so I probably missed some benchmarks.
Toriyama maintained that Goku and Vegeta still weren't on Beerus' level outside of fusion and Ultra Instinct (which Goku still doesn't have full control of yet in the anime continuity). The Energy of Destruction given by Sindra is only a fraction of an actual Hakkai, which is why Goku was able to resist it and Frieza was able to control it (not to mention Sindra is one of the weaker GoDs). Beerus also states that Toppo's Hakkai technique is fundamentally weaker than a true GoD's (especially since Toppo was explicitly trying not to erase Frieza and Vegeta because killing your opponents meant disqualification) and it nearly killed Frieza when he tried to manipulate it as he did Sindra's destruction energy.
Ichigo: What even *are* you?!
Kenpachi: Some say my mother was a train. Some say that I'm a rejected Godzilla monster too strong for the series canon. But everyone says: I'M THE KEEEEENPACHIIIIII!!!!
Whis blocking Moro's punch. Notice that he isn't actually fighting Moro, he mainly talking to Goku and doesn't want to be disturbed.
And here's Whis casually dodging around SSJ Broly, who famously over-powered post ToP Goku and Vegeta.
Except that those statements do line up with what we've been shown so far of the characters.