You mean peak Fed who couldn't solve Rafa until early 2017? I know it's not Rafa's problem Roger's backhand disintegrated more often than not when they faced each other but the fact he did not have to do anything extra special apart from bringing in his bread and butter cross court forehand does take away some shine off of that "beating peak Fed" gloriole. Novak vs. Rafa is much more evenly balanced match-up.
I think Nole has had the hardest competition and I also think he will end up with most majors in the end. Unless he refuses the vaccine and calls it a career...
Fed couldn't solve Rafa before 2017 because they did not play any Wimb or USO matches after AO 2009, where Fed could have beaten Nadal if in good form (so no 2010 for either slam LOL) on those faster surfaces.
Instead, they kept meeting in slams/surfaces/circumstances favoring Nadal:
1. RG 2011 - it's RG. Need I say more?
2. AO 2012 - slowest HC known to mankind.
3. AO 2014 - Fed not fully back after his horrible 2013, while Nadal was at the peak of his powers.
So no wonder Fed didn't overcome Nadal pre 2017. Nadal probably wouldn't have overcome Djokovic either if they hadn't met at RG after AO 2012.