Another thing is...... why are people saying the plot point has no purpose when the plot point hasn't ended yet? Your reading one piece, Oda could setup a random plot point and it could take 1 chapter 10 chapters, 20 chapters or maybe even the end of the arc for us to know the purpose of a plot point. Oda loves doing shit like that. We should probably wait until the arc concludes before deciding which things have no purpose.
and now maybe Sanji will save scabbards, while Maria got intercepted by Robin.

