Rakitic has never been better than Thiago.
In 2014-2016, Rakitic was simply playing in the best team in the world with a role that suited him: a water carrier. He was a good midfielder, but he's never been among the best in the world, never had the potential nor the skills to be among the best. Also in 2014, Thiago was a 23 years old kid who kept getting injuries, so of course nobody rated him.
When Rakitic was 23 years old, he was a bench warmer at Schalke 04.
FYI: Clowns BBZ and Raketa were saying that Rakitic is better than Thiago in 2017, in 2018 and even in 2019. So you're off topic.
"23 yr old kid"
My man, what? But I agree with you. Honestly this forum has developed a boner for insanely average talents in the past few years. I honestly don't know what has happened. Our standards used to be higher.