Because he wasn't strong enough?...
How is chapter 1 luffy being weak a good point for Coby lol. Luffy didn't even know haki or have any gears lol.
Wait. Luffy wasn't strong enough to break the wooden stockade, but he was strong enough to relatively easily shatter Don Kriegs armor?
FS is advanced shit. Not basic haki. And Mr Go fucking up their fight was memed to death lol. It was absolutely seen as an L. We even got emotes for his bravery and all of that.
I'm not talking about whether it's an L or not. Obviously, Koby getting tricked is an L. He was naive. My point is that anti-feats are common and we never really got a clear picture of where Koby was strength wise. My guess is Kyros level, since they seemed to have mutual respect for each other.
I'll grant Koby's detractors this though, Oda really should have used Koby earlier. If he'd give us an idea of where Koby ranked during Dressrossa and he came back stronger, I think it would have been easier for some of his anti-fan club to accept.