Quick answer
Each stage of life has its own distinction, and neither is a consolation prize for the other.
Read both lines
Both nouns in the first position are display words, glory and splendor, so the verse is not ranking the two ages but describing what each one shows. Strength is the young man's, visible and temporary. The gray head is the old man's, and 16:31 calls the silver head a crown of glory if it is found in the way of righteousness. Setting them in parallel refuses the usual arrangement in which age is decline and youth is the standard. What each has is genuinely theirs, and neither is asked to envy the other, which is a gentler sentence than most cultures manage on this subject. The honesty is in the pairing. Strength will go, and the verse does not pretend otherwise; it simply declines to treat its going as loss without compensation.
Related: Proverbs 16:31 · Proverbs 17:6 · Proverbs 20:11
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.