I mean, I don’t think the situation in the show is anywhere near inorganic enough for me to think they should have prioritized back of the toy box stats over their storytelling goals

Well to be fair, Nolan and Mark mostly got to 1v1 the Viltrumites. Mark got jumped by like a dozen Maulers, and we can assume his base inclination is to hold back, at least subconsciously, which also led to him getting absolutely stopped by his Viltrumite opponents. Lucan(?) held him down by the head with a finger.