Can I say "less good than"?

When two things or people are both good and I don't want to express any negativity in the comparison. Can I say Bill is less good than Joshua?

If you say, "Bill is less good than Joshua", this means that both Bill and Joshua are good, but Joshua is more good.

Usually we would simply say, "Joshua is better than Bill." If someone said "Bill is less good", I would probably interpret that as carefully choosing is words. He wants to make clear that he thinks both are good. But Joshua is MORE good. Bill might still be insulted, but he'd be less insulted than if you said "Joshua is better" or "Bill is bad".

I see someone suggested, "Bill is worse than Joshua". But that's not really the same thing. That implies that both are bad, and Bill is more bad.

Like if Joshua came in first in an Olympic competition and Bill came in second, I might say, "Joshua is better than Bill." Recognizing that coming in #2 means he's the second best in the world, quite an accomplishment, I might say "Bill is less good than Joshua." But I would not be likely to say "Bill is worse than Joshua." Now I might say something like, "Stalin was worse than Hitler", comparing two very bad people.