To add, crushing only work on someone weaker than you, so crushing someone instead of using 'normal' magic (like the light band he used on Wil) is basically that much of exerting dominance move.
I'm pretty sure that's not true. Myne before entering the temple had less mana than Ferdinand, but she still crushed him to the point of him spitting blood.
What we were told is that crushing exerts mana pressure on those that you view as enemy. It's just that if you have more mana, that pressure less dangerous, and especially when you build up defenses against it. Or rather, crushing is inefficient, and normally if someone try to use crushing in battle - you just kill him with normal spell instead, while his guard down (using crushing). It's not because you can't crush someone who have more mana, it's because if you try to crush an opponent strong enough to not be immediately disabled by it, an opponent will kill you in that moment, even if he have less mana than you. Effectively, the best way to stop opponent's crushing is killing them, and Ferdinand didn't want to do that to Myne.
On the other hand, "light band" can be easily overcome by mana difference and it was told over and over through the book that those who have less mana than the target shouldn't even try.
So, in a sense, "light bands" shows difference in mana more clearly than crushing. Unless, ofcourse, it's a crushing that completely strips the target from any kind of battle potential, like ferdinand did here. So i agree with you that it was totally "exerting dominance", but felt that nuances are still important and need to be corrected.
