The top Mafia gangster imo was Frank Costello, known as "the chairman of the board." He was the main model for Vito Corleone: controlled gambing and unions, didn't touch drugs, had vast amounts of political power, controlled judges, etc. Was sophsticated. Retired after a near-assassination. Died peacefully in bed.
Louis (Lepke) Bucholter, boss of the garmet rackets (and many others) in the Thirties, and founder of Murder, Inc., was widely regarded as the richest and most powerful gangster in history. He was so big that the US Justice Dept. filed an antitrust suit against his rackets! However, he screwed up, was convicted of murders and died in the electric chair--not a successful ending.
Meyer Lansky, the model for Hyman Roth, was adviser to many Mafia Dons and powerful as such. He died peaceably in his eighties, and never spent more than three months in jail (once).
To your original point: Charlie Luciano deserves a lot of credit as a Mafia pioneer. Though born in Sicily, he was thoroughly American. He broke the power of the "Moustache Petes" by eliminating them; opened Mafia ranks to non-Sicilians; invited non-Italians (like Lansky) to advise and contribute). Most important: he created the Commission, which helped control some (but not all) of organized crime's wilder behavior. However, Luciano wasn't smart enough to stay away from prostitution and drug rackets. Thomas E. Dewey, special prosecutor (later governor of NY and presidential candidate) convicted him of "white slavery" and had him sentenced to 35 years. He ran the Commission from prison, helped with the US war effort (another story for some other time) and was "rewarded" by being paroled in 1946--and exiled to Italy. Once that happened, he was no longer a power to be reckoned with. He was reduced to running a restaurant in Naples and getting ever-diminishing handouts from the Mob. Not a great ending for a Mob boss.