The one thing Yamato did that others couldn't do is know there are bombs in Onigashima's basement and freeze them before they went off.
But it's such a weird turn because aside from Big Mom's last scene those bombs had zero effect on the plot. It sounds like Oda just inserted things for Yamato to do. Which is again messed up, because why introduce a character and give them tasks, take up space, if you're going to rush the ending of the arc and dump said character?