Oh, i thought we were debating about strawhats vs aokiji sorry..
I still like your approach but i disagree.
I truly believe that aokiji only want to keep an eye to the most dangerous guy on the verse right now.
I mean BB would sink marineford if shanks wasn't there.
Even if you are right, do you believe that smoker could defeat that monster?
I can picture him reaching doflas pl but going all the way up to aokiji's level seems impossible to me.
Oda giving massive power spikes to his characters are honestly nothing new. I think Smoker has one of the strongest wills out of all the marines and his devil fruit if used correctly can be really powerful.
Im sure Odas going to level smoker up pretty substantially next time we see him because he’s one of the people Luffy wants to fight the most. And he’s the closest thing to a marine rival Luffy has so him surpassing Aokiji doesn’t seem far fetched to me.
As to Aokijis character, Aokiji seems like he’s been conflicted ever since Ohara. I think him realizing the marines favored a warmonger like Akainu is what made him realize there’s no point protecting this organization which massacred an island and forced him to kill his friends.
Aokiji joining forces with someone who has an unknown dream but we can assume it likely involves the destruction of the world government is just the finale of a likely character arc for him.