And he specifically bulks up his muscles to life Kaidou and yeet him around.
He goes Gigant to do so as well.
Why do that when, if you're right, he could do the same without it?
See the above post i quoted.
I never said he can. You're making the mistake to assume that Nika without buffing up any area of his body is the exact same as Base Luffy, that's the major difference. Whether Luffy can buff x body part up is not important here.
A zoan awakening buffs up your stats by default. As they did Lucci's.
That it does.
But that stat increase isn't even comparable to regular g3 given equalized hakis.
Now that is definitely headcanon. Gear 5 is the pinnacle of what Luffy can do, as he said, don't compare a trash ass G3 to that.
Lucci literally changes his forms, uses awakening to combat a formidable opponent.
Even back in Enies Lobby, he was transitioning between bulk & lean hybrids based on speed/power requirements to tradeoff.
Arguably, the worst example to use to illustrate your point.
Lmao no. Lucci can't manipulate his body the way Luffy does. The moment he went into awakening his speed, strength and every other Base stat reached a new level. Same for Luffy with the small but crucial difference that as a mythical zoan he gains an ability to freely manipulate his own body
and his surroundings as if he was a paramecia.