Having looked at the various definitions of acids and bases and having refined my understanding of it after learning about the inadequacies of pKa and the novel use of the Hammett acidity function, I would like to ask if the bare proton is the strongest acid?
I would like to define "acid strength" not as the extent of dissociation but more simply as the ability to protonate other chemical species.
I have come to this conclusion after reading through a post on the explanation behind the strength of fluorantimonic acid, being that the bare proton is liberated and that the conjugate base is so well coordinated, allowing the charge to be spread out over a large structure, stabilising it to a great extent.
There is no doubt about the proton being the strongest acid in the Brønsted-Lowry sense. Similarly, in the Lewis sense, this should also be logical as what could possibly more electrophilic than a bare proton?