Really now? Are there still people who are trying to seek logic behind Dragon Ball's inconsistent power levels?
There is none, that's why I'm trying to argue why it isn't a good reason to dislike a character. There's no logic, Toriyama's always been lazy about it. One of the things I like about Super is they've stopped caring and just focus on pure spectacle. Roshi would never have gotten away with the stuff he pulled in the ToP back in Z, and his episodes were some of the best.
They all earned that right due to skill,training,and backstory,Kale did not,she was an absolute weakling before she transformed,Broly was weak as well but it was when he was an infant,Kale was much older than Broly was and was flat out weak and afraid of fighting.
Kale is just the latest in a long line of characters to get a massive boosty to make her relevant against Goku. She's still the runner-up behind Gohan and Frieza in that department.
Modern Dragon Ball seems to emphasise training as the key path to strength, which is fine by me because it fits in with the series' themes of personal improvement. At the moment, they seem to be focusing on the idea that physical training has a limit, but mental training is where true gains lie. Kale right now is following a similar trajectory to Frieza since he was first revived in Resurrection F; like him, she has this incredibly powerful transformation that can briefly stagger Goku in his top form, but being unable to control it makes it ineffective. Freeza was able to overcome the flaw with his Golden Form through meditation, while Kale has been able to gain control of her Beserk form, and get a nice in-betweeny one as well by improving her confidence. There's definitely further room to develop her there, which is more than can be said for her male counterpart and why I'm not ready to write her off just yet. Caulifla meanwhile is just awesome in general; she clearly had what she needed to become a Super Saiyan, she just needed to be told how.
That applies to everyone; Gohan has only ever got stronger through changes in his way of thinking. He gained all his early powerups up to Super Saiyan 2 through anger, his Ultimate form through a mystic ritual (come on, you can't tell me that was earned but Caulifla's weren't) and he's made it strong enough to challenge SSB Goku through regaining his confidence and understanding where he went wrong before. Jiren, the current big man on campus seems to only train through meditation. It also goes back to Whis' teachings about moving without thinking. It's basically another way of saying inner peace is the true path to strength. Open your third eye and all that. At this point, let's all have a moment of silence for our dear friend Tenshinhan.