But that's a "fairness" argument,

It's both an argument about proportion and also national will and commitment. The Poles have all 3. The others? Not so much.
The Poles used to live under the Russians' thumb. They didn't care for it and choose not to go back; they understand the score.

he actual size of their military is still pretty small compared to the collective militaries of those Big Three.

I'll give you the quote from the US Army officer again: I'd rather have the Poles than the French. Any idea why he might have said that?

Israel doesn't have the largest military either. Would you downgrade their lethality based on that?

Look, if you've made up your mind about the modern day force readiness of the various militaries in Europe based on one quote, from one guy, about one country, from nearly fifty years ago, then I'm not sure what to tell you.

LOL. No. That didn't make up my mind.
Stuff like this made up my mind:

kielinstitut.de - Fit for war in decades europes and germanys slow rearmament vis a vis russia

I've posted it before so I won't quote it.

Other than you might want to update your sources of information

Ell.
Ohhhh.
Elll.

See the above.

It's not a dodge or weave. They can field much more than the Poles

I should hope that Germany, France and the UK can field much more than the Poles. That's not the point. The point is that those three a) have been coasting for decades b) would rather not do anything to improve their militaries and c) lack the national will to act even if they could.

Oh, and your characterization of what the UK/France/Germany can and can't deploy is something you should research using better sources before you criticize anyone else's.

To wit: Poland has more main battle tanks as of 2021 that those three combined.