Yes as usual, Oda make the Marines alot more terrifying and threatening than fking pirates.
They basically are cold hearted, who doesn't give no shit and are usually given orders or have a "need job done" sets in ther mind
Which make them much more threatening and menace.
Whereas pirates have no such jurisdiction and have free will.
Look at Kaido, Oda build him like "I'm having fun", "Give me what you got" " Let me see how strong you are" etc type of person
There can't be much threatening vibe in that way
Probably it is also Wano itself that make the arc so underwhelming and doesn't live up to hype at all.
Oda protected them too much, One piece being one piece, for much worse G5 toonforce reveal at the time of climax battle killing every stakes
( as if there's any lol, anyway)
Hope Oda unleashed true pirate brutality when we got to Blackbeard pirates and stop with his fake tension and should stop protecting many other character on top of giving SH crew plot armor.
We used to thought Law would die/sacrifice or at least beloved character will die in the fight against 2 Yonko
When in reality Oda can't even kill half of scabbard and the only major death from alliance comes from Cp0 and Kanjuro.
I'd like to roast Wano so much!!!
But i rethink again,
Seeing one piece shounen brother, Bleach and Naruto......
There aren't many deaths either in their "War arc"
except EOS final war.
Bleach have no death from the hero's side during Aizen-Arrancar War but got several casualties in EOS war(TBW)
Naruto seem to have limited casualty even during the last Ninja War, Neji was only the major one.
So i guess it is moderately forgivable for One piece to not have too much casually in a non-EOS war.
Let's wait and see what the Final War give
Hope Oda doesn't make it a cheap battle