I think he stands in a league above many other mobsters. good point about colombo being underrated too (purely in terms of competence) because he had a knack for structure while most bosses tend to just sit back and collect money. Even profaci didnt give a fuck who was capo, who wasnt. he just shot his way through opposition rather mindlessly and it dearly cost him during the gallo wars. Colombo on the other hand shrewedly maneuevered plays throughout the family by rearranging its structure and even bumping up some old phased out guys (believe some of them were gallos, harry would know). Unfortunate joey was just a bit of a bastard and would stir up conflict regardless. Look at it this way, the guy inherits a family by ratting on another mob boss (from capo no less) that has a history of wars and infighting and manages to keep the peace and gain a level of prominence in the process. He did have commission backing but its still fairly impressive. He definitely thought outside the box in terms of family sructure, rocky miraglia I believe was a capo with no crew because joe knew he could trust him...again my research is off the top of my head so corrections are welcome.

the colombo family in the 60s and the profacis from the 40s on to be honest, thats my favorite era of any five family to study. You can really put a distrinct trait to every single mobster active at the time. There's a reason so much of GF2 was based on the colombos of this era, it makes for a great tale. The 2 gallo wars and the late profacis reign would make a way better book than say, whatever bonanno and garafolo were doing at the time.