It's still hard for me to believe that Buggy could build up a fortune that comes close to a huge ass organisation.
Well, I don’t think the only reason Oda is doing this is to fuel powerscaling debates and I’m amazed that anyone thinks that actually lol.
Look at the irl example where the US Governor put a $500 bounty on Lafitte, and Lafitte put a $5000 bounty on him. The situation is more complicated than whether or not Lafitte actually had more wealth than a state Governor.
For one, the Louisiana Governor was likely underfunded and may have had more wealth than a Pirate, but likely couldn’t afford to just go throwing out huge rewards for Pirates and had to consider a strict budget.
For two, Lafitte may have never had any intention of paying such a high bounty, he probably just issued it to troll the Governor, and even if someone claimed the Governor’s life, Lafitte is a Pirate, he doesn’t have to pay shit lol.
I don’t think Oda is doing this for powerscaling reasons, I think he’s doing it because it’s hilarious lol, buggy is a peak troll right now. I honestly think that we’ll most likely get stupidly high bounties before we get pissant deflated bounties, and I think we’ll get deflated bounties before we’ll get actual accurate bounties that accurately reflect the Marines’ power level lol.
Ultra high bounties would be hilarious,
Ultra low bounties would neither be hilarious nor effective in-universe,
And power-level-accurate bounties would feel like fanservice pandering (which is mostly what Oda does nowadays anyway so who knows).