By chance, were you reading the comics back in the 90's?
I can see how one could look at the character today and ask these questions. They're definitely warranted, John has fallen far. But at the beginning? Nobody was looking at Steel as 'lesser' because he didn't have the raw power. He had what he needed where he needed it, and was a big fan favorite among the "S" fandom.
Ironically I feel like his popularity started to stall out around the time he had the entropy aegis armor, which *did* provide Kryptonian-level power (at a cost, as I recall).