Oda is lost. He was already said to have a weakness making characters likable and believable in the past. Now he's old, famous and nobody will ever bother to stand up to him when this weakness shows. The old bastard even complained about younger staff not telling him his character acted unnatural and not being able to yell at them because they're were fans since they were children. He is just like every other old japan video game developer that leads a franchise/company to it doom because none of the younger staff would dare speak against them.
He jumping all over the place in an unplanned way and not concluding his ideas. He dragging out events too long. He is noticably bending the whole story to PR marketing whims but in a way that hurts in the long run. I bet netflix is twisting his arms for their own agenda like they did with resident evil so they could fail with Leon Kendeny's netflix show.
One more gear 5 episode to go. This is what we've been waiting one whole year for.... This is suppose to be "peak". 3 more weeks.