I always found Oda’s cavalcade of interesting villians the bigger draw.

Yes, Luffy does some clever stuff, but it’s the classic main-character problem: you know the hero’s going to win so it’s just a matter of how.

I was always fascinated by Arlong for the narrative of “how do power structures change when humans aren’t the dominant species”, and loved the back-reference where we find out Arlong Park was designed to mimic Sabaody Park, leading into the whole “society is stratified in a very broken way” story that reaches its peak absurdity with the Tennryubito.

The relationship between CP9 and Spandam is perpetually comical.

Even Axe-hand Morgan, for a throwaway villian to establish the main narrative model, he had an interesting character design, and then the Jango side-story that shows his cherished career is built on a lie is an amazing piece of exposition.