but surely work rate and strength are the two most important attributes for being able to beat players?

you cant just pluck words out of nowhere and pretend they have no correlation to a certain attribute when they clearly do. if you'd said something like x doesnt have pace so that hinders his ability to beat players then id see your point, but you're basing your judgment on attributes he clearly has. then using those attributes in the wrong context.
and im not sure where adaptation comes into your theory because arguero has a good goal scoring ratio, just not as good as the one held by tevez. surely you're adaptation theory only comes into play if aguero was performing badly, thus him needing more time to adapt to the english game? it has little to do with the tevez vs aguero argument. in fact you're saying aguero will get better with age, which is surely acknowledging the fact that tevez is better right now, because as you say, aguero isnt at his peak?