I don't think we should be using Austin as an example of Taker's willingness to put guys over. By the time of their Summerslam 98 match, Austin was 10x the star Taker ever was.
Other than that, Lesnar and Foley are the only guys I can think of that Taker properly put over where it actually helped the other guy's career. I won't count Khali and Kozlov because they were going nowhere anyway. Angle's win if I'm remembering right was just booked like a fluky roll up win.
There are more guys Taker could have put over. Some that come to mind are CM Punk, Edge, Randy Orton and Booker T. I never liked Kane, but Kane should have been booked so much stronger against Taker. Plus I can't forgive Taker for the DDP feud.
This is going to be an unpopular opinion but SCSA rode the cheapest heat of any babyface in the history of professional wrestling. It's the babyfaces answer to Bill Alfonso blowing his coach whistle for 20 straight minutes during ECW matches. People legitimately wanted him dead because they couldn't enjoy the matches and to this day you can't watch the product without it being on mute.
As for SCSA every night the guy comes out giving the finger to people he doesn't like, he drinks beer, about every 4th week he beats the shit out of McMahon and gets arrested for it. Whenever his enemies are in the ring he does the most outrageous crap you've ever seen like driving monster trucks and zambonis into the ring to crash the party and the infamous Crapper 3:16 segment with Golddust. How do you NOT get over 10x more than Taker did? It is literally impossible. It was the Jerry Springer antics that got people so fired up because when the glass broke -SOME bullshit was going down and it was gonna be memorable. No one has EVER been given such privilege before or since. Russo/McMahon knew exactly what they were doing. SCSA could cut a great promo and was a safe worker. It's the "Joe Montana was a system QB" equivalent of professional wrestling. And I'll be damned if SCSA isn't the most transcendent superstar in history. You took a guy who was a "9 out of 10" and turned him into a "30 out of 10" the likes of CM Punk, the Rock and John Cena were all better promos (imo) and equitable workers but they never transcended like Stone Cold and if they got to pull all those crazy shenanigans I'm willing to bet they would have.
The reason Taker gets my praise is because SCSA did not need to get put over THAT clean. The guy would've been a supernova anyway had the ref been down and he cracked Taker with a chair or some BS like that and then won under controversial circumstances.
Lesnar was a rare circumstance because here you have a rare athlete to begin with anyway -but guys like that never made it to WWE and every talent along the way put him over clean en route to superstardom. The Rock did it. Hogan did it. And then Taker did it and turned Lesnar babyface in the process. And then he lets Lesnar break the streak. I agree with you about Kane. In a perfect world, Kane is riding one last monster heel run and he and Taker have a casket match at Mania. Kane wins clean as a whistle and Taker is sent away by druids in an eerie ceremony and you just hear nothing ever again. Taker's career is done.
We agree on Khali and Kozlov. That was stupid. But as for Angle's rollup while in the hell's gate submission, that match was fantastic. The super serious wrestling machine" was probably the purest of Angle's babyface incarnations and I actually think going over clean -despite the rollup was a great idea because it made Mysterio's Mania win that much bigger a few months later. For the rest of the guys I agree there too but I think Vince was too set on protecting Taker vs putting other talent over. I think Mark Calaway the man was more than willing to put over anyone at any time but Vince's final word always overruled him. The fact he was willing to let Edge break the streak speaks multitudes of the man behind the dark hat.