The OP is that you are trying to through everyone's arguments trying to seem impartialike so that your final say on the matter seems apparently more valid somehow. Hence why you don't bring up Roger and Shanks since that's all anyone actually cares about
you only feel this way because it does not agree with your personal opinion. which is bias at its core. I try to avoid this in most discussions, not just here.
Swordsmen are whatever the Oda decides. Freaking Daz bones doesn't even have a freaking sword and look at him.
Daz Bones tells Zoro that he should not think of him as a swordsman. not that I say he is not one in my eyes. you try to paint this is a black and white thing when nothing points toward that.
you are right in 1 thing. swordsman are what Oda decides they are, not you. thats the kicker here.
Oda decided from Chapter three that there is a World reknown form of martial arts called Swordsmanship when he invented Zoro's dream. From chapter three he gave himself the task of keeping this statement relevant for 1000 chapters and so he tacked on everything on top of swordsmanship to keep it relevant since its a world reknown thing do it has to be able to go as far anything the world can come up with. That's all there is to it.
a moot point. also, again, a very biased one.
we rarely see people actively chasing or aiming for Luffys dream. I believe there are more swordsman to go arround than pirates actively chasing the One Piece.
having "less" (hardly measurable) opposition in his dream does not invalidate Zoros or Mihawks accomplishments. not a bit.
Oda did NOT do the same for brawling or Karate or Marksmanship or whatever because HE DOESN'T CARE. It's not important to Oda or the story so it doesn't matter.
this is bias again.
cause there is no definition that fits. a character like Akainu could be referred to as a brawler, but that still would not describe his way of fighting. the guy is capable of launching a large amount of projectiles and rain fire down on his enemies. that is hardly hand to hand combat.
swordsman are clearly categorized for 1 reason only. this is the field Zoro is competing in. end of story.
Zoro is a swordsman and he wants to become the strongest in this category. so its paramount that we encounter people who are par of category. to pick up on your earlier point, there are countless of those already. no need to make everyone that.
you give swords more credit then any other type of weapon or fighting style.
that is the main problem I have with this debate and I addressed it multiple times.
that is the only reason I made this thread wether you want to believe this is not.
that is another problem entirely. you (and others) are so hellbound on the idea that everyone has some hidden agenda they follow. like trying to slight you are disagree just to piss you off in particular. maybe thats easier to stomache than being contradicted. maybe.
reality is I dislike inconsistent reasoning first and foremost.
if you allow swordsman to fight with w/e the so wish and they still remain swordsman in your eyes then you also have to allow other characters to use a swords and remain w/e they would classify (or not) themselves as.
as inconvenient as this thought may be to you. thats the gist of it.
