Of course I'm biased everyone is
Have you heard the word symbolism before? If Oda wants to highlight something or someone who might have an important role during any arc he makes sure the readers gets it and yes it doesn't have any thing to do with strength or powerscaling the example you brought actually verify this lol
And didn't we actually have a couple of panels like that with Luffy and Zoro as a duo at the beginning of Wano? What are the Zoro fans afraid of
And I actually would be hyped if we have another one like that again with the other supernova with Zoro included it will be cool