I think that one of my favorite things about Hunter X Hunter is the way Togashi makes us think that Gon would’ve never been able to beat the chimera ants.
I’m pretty sure that older Gon(the one who killed Pitou) is actually stronger or just as strong as the chimera ants themselves.
The reasoning behind why I think this is just that Gon was young, and he still kept his training from that age, not the older versions training/skills, and since we didn’t get to see more of adult Gon using the abilities/skills he learned, I think that Gon might’ve actually been able to fight the ants from the beginning if it were to happen years later.