Still doesn't address the problem at all. You don't need to tell the Navy: "This boy is the special criminal Nika Joyboy." The WG can always just lie to them and use any other excuse. "That is the son of the Worst Criminal, we want to make an example of him," "That boy is trying to read poneglyphs which is why he has teamed up with Nico Robin," "We don't like the way he looks", etc. They've lied to the world for much less.
Imu would be a colossal moron of the highest order to ask the Gorosei to hunt down the secret fruit without telling them what the name was changed to. That's just dumb.
Like I said, their conversation is part of the problem. Why wouldn't the Gorosei know the basic info to do their job? How have they been hunting it for 800 years if that were case? Why was it being guarded by the special agents if they didn't know? It's a mess because there's no way to untie the knot without someone at some level looking incredibly stupid.
Whitebeard could have become Pirate King, but every indication is now that the One Piece would have been useless to him and he wouldn't be able to use it overthrow the WG. That's my point. The race for the One Piece now seems foolish because even if you found it, without Joyboy's special fruit you would be out of luck. The issue isn't finding the One Piece but actually using it in any meaningful way.
As Kaido said: "I'm the only one who can change the world!" That is apparently the essence of becoming Joyboy. Now it looks like he failed because he ate the wrong produce.
Also, Oda is now indicating that it wasn't really just rubber even before awakening. Kaido said "rubber shouldn't do that," so Oda is changing the fundamentals of it.
Changing it now doesn't change the struggles Luffy had, but it does change the optics of the encounters. It's no longer someone rising to surpass those with superior abilities with the mundane and generic, but one who had special abilities all along that just couldn't access them for seemingly arbitrary restrictions.
Rubber band overcoming a leopard is just a much better look than Sun God Nika with a fraction of his abilities overcoming a leopard.
I don't think he ever told them to hunt that fruit before until now. Only now when he for some reason decided that it became dangerous did he tell them to hunt it and told them why. Gorosei aren't immortals. They're clearly being replaced each few decades. They weren't the one who hunted it in the past. They're talking about WG as an organization, not themselves personally.
Now, why didn't Imu not say anything before? We don't know. We need that explained, true. But we need everything about Imu explained.
As for why it was guarded by special agent. Who said it was them who sent him? Again, refer back to Dressrosa, the stuff with CP0 was done from behind their back. They still do answers to presumably other CDs and Imu's whims
Why would WB care about overthrowing the government or any pirate really? That's changing the point of being PK. Roger was declared PK. Oda confirmed that there will be a treasure at the Final Island in the past. That's all 90+% of pirates care about. The race didn't change at all.
Yes, Kaido wanted to change the world, but why and to what? He seems to indicate that he wants a world of violence, then he already failed with or without fruit. What does Kaido know about Joyboy? Does he know enough? He gave up on being Joyboy, but he still is seeking the OP to become a PK.
No, the Gorosei clearly said that it gives a rubber body and only on awakening it gives additional abilities. Kaido's words could easily mean that Luffy was in the process of awakening his fruit. That he pushed it hard enough and only needed one last push.
Oda never wanted Luffy to have a mundane or generic ability though. He always said that he wanted him to have "the most ridicules ability" which it was and still is.