It could be said that all the ship battles in PotC 5 – at the beginning and end of the film – were a duel of leadership skills.
And here it becomes clear that of the three captains (Barbossa, Salazar, and Toms), only Barbossa led with complete awareness and thoughtfulness.
Salazar relied heavily on terror and experience, meaning it was mostly reflexive and instinctive, while Toms acted procedurally.
Thus, Barbossa didn't lose the final battle outright.
The crew knew why they were fighting, which allowed for cohesion even in a surprising situation.
Unlike Monarch, where the lack of a point of reference led to panic, and Mary, where the brutality was obvious but chaotic.
In Salazar's case, the crew was synchronized instinctively, but unplanned, so effectiveness didn't depend solely on conscious leadership. The fear, panic, and terror of the victims were the reinforcing factor. Salazar knew how people reacted to him. And he reinforced this by sending one alive to tell scary tales.
As a result, his method worked brilliantly: appear, terrify the enemy, and bring about their destruction.
His crew attacked, but they didn't focus on specific individuals. So they were more dispersed in the chaos for the sake of attacking, venting aggression, and inducing panic with brutality.
However, on the Black Pearl, this mechanism didn't fully work. Barbossa prevented the crew from mentally breaking down. Even under stress and with the enemy outnumbered, Barbossa maintained control of the group's actions.
As a result, Salazar was forced into a fight that wasn't his specialty: a prolonged encounter with an opponent who maintained organization.
It's an interesting paradox. Salazar was the most dangerous captain as a tool for spreading terror, but not necessarily the best commander in a drawn-out battle. He essentially always relied on quickly breaking the enemy with a surprise attack and/or instilling fear.
(Perhaps there was also a physiological basis – the Triangle was heavily contaminated, and judging by the sounds and behavior of the crew, everyone suffered from asthma to varying degrees, so even instinctively, they operate best in a short window of time, which is due to reduced respiratory capacity.)
Barbossa, on the other hand, repeatedly demonstrates throughout the series his ability to quickly assess a situation, establish priorities, communicate them to the crew with simple orders, and keep his men on task despite chaos. These are the classic traits of a very good commander.
Combat psychology truly shows that people endure extreme stress much better when they have a clear goal and trust the person giving the orders. Barbossa ensures this very cohesion, while Salazar strives to destroy it in his opponent. When he fails, his greatest advantage diminishes significantly.
This means that the difference between Monarch's destruction and the Black Pearl's defense can be interpreted not as an inconsistency, but as a clash of two different command philosophies, each most effective under different circumstances.
Incredible, isn't it?