He is both the current rapid (5 times) and blitz (7 times) world champion. He is more than one of the best.

And his freestyle performance was clearly shoulders ahead his peers

Sure, but he's not invincible like in Classic; those 7 wins aren't consecutive (he lost in 2021 and won 22 & 23), meanwhile he's won every classical championship since 2013 (until he stopped playing in 2023).

Ahh I missed that this wasn't classical, thank you.

His edge in rapid/blitz is generally seen as much larger than in classical.

One of the biggest examples of this was in his title defense against Caruana. Every game of that match had been drawn, and in the final game Magnus had a very promising position where he could squeeze with basically no risk.

Instead he offered a draw which was immediately accepted. That sent the game to rapid tie breaks where he casually butchered Caruana 3-0.

That's because Caruana was a bad Blitz player though; on the elo rankings, Carlsen's lead is (and usually tends to be) smaller in Blitz.

The tie breaks were rapid, not blitz. And rapid is where Magnus' gap over #2 is the largest.

And no great player is bad at any time control - they're just 'less good'. Except Magnus - since he's #1 at everything he's just more or less dominant.

Oh boy, offering a draw so he could annihilate Caruana in the next phase is a totally gangsta move. <whew>