Absolutely! Chandrababu was a lot better actor than Nagesh. He was the First Dancer actor AFAIK in thamizh cinema and a very Good Singer too!
His facial expressions, body language and dialogue delivery were very very original and he was the first one to portray authentic Madras bashai in movies!
Nagesh was backed by directors like Sridhar and Balachander, which played a huge part in eclipsing out Chandrababu.
Also Chandrababu was considered a "wise-crack" as he refused to be awed by "personality cult" which had started to root in the then industry (MGR was miffed by Chadrababu's outspoken and open comments, so he ensured babu was sidelined).
Also, the fact that nagesh was favoured by the powerful "Stage actor/writer" cartel which had considerable influence and definitely "also" because he was a brahmin.
Chandrababu was the genius, who sadly lost out due to various factors.
Now, Kamalji blows Nagesh's trumpet dime-a-dozen! He knows he can't dethrone Kalaivaanar NS Krishnan and give that on a platter to Nagesh, so Kamalji keeps saying "Kalaivaanarukku appuram Nagesh-thaan!" - wilfully denying the rightful place that Chandrababu deserves on that illustrious list of actors.
I would dare to Say that Kalaivaanar, NadigavEL, and Chandra Babu were the people who were the pioneers who set the path and the pace for thamizh film acting.
Not to discount nagesh's brilliance, but definitely he had Chandrababu to look up to.