Tiers do not necessarily indicate who would beat who in a fight. Rich doesn't care about tiers he cares about story. Belkar annihilated Haleys rival in like one round. Its been blatantly stated in comic that the only reason that Belkar listens to Roy is cos Roy had the rest of the OotS backing him up.
In the larger sense using Belkar as a measure of someones leadership isn't exactly fair, and in the long run Haley got the Order of the Stick reunited successfully despite Epic magic, a whole thieves guild, two party members that disobeyed direct orders and limited funds.
Not to mention successfully maintaining a low-level army against Tsukiko for months. She did pretty dang well. Do we want to start comparing her to Roy? Under Roy's watch two party members have died, one being himself!