I think you're speculation is right, the only comment I have is that the end passage of the text seems to be contradicted by the following passage, which in of itself doesn't quite make sense so is likely incorrect, and whether the no shouldn't be in there, so that the dexterity does make them a match:
"Still, one-on-one, looking only at pure strength and avoiding the advantages of dexterity, length of practice and skill, the top level for a man was usually no more than a match for the top level for a woman"
I suspect they are using dexterity two ways here. There's the dexterity that comes with experience, which men can also gain, and there's the inherent dexterity advantage women have. In the passage above, they're talking about acquired dexterity, so if you remove all that, the top woman and top man are pretty much the same, which lines up with what RJ said before.
Then the quoted section basically says, "if comparing SOLELY strength, ignoring ALL else, the strongest man was as strong as the strongest woman." We know that is false because the male scale has levels above the female scales highest, and the rest of the entrys context consistently shows that comparison is not apples to oranges: Strength x is strength x, for male AND female, though a woman will have more skill than they would have as a man with all skills developed to the same degree.
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