Nah I often defend characters who are not getting a fair shake. Lucci downplay was far too premature, he did nothing wrong. He's looked more impressive in egghead than not.
I was defending Hawkins against Law and Zoro fans for weeks...saying we don't know his floor yet even after Law disposed of him, since Law could have recieved help, and Hawkins did ok the first time against both. Now obviously we found out later Hawkins was a chump.
Same way I've been defending Vergo as well for years because people act like he was fodder and he wouldn't have performed better if he had full Intel against Law.
Oda actually respects Lucci and until I'm shown he doesn't conclusively I'm not writing him off. If he feeds Lucci to Zoro it only means Zoro is in rarefied air, where Oda is willing to sacrifice Lucci to him. This is similar to how Oda sacrificed years of protecting Smoker and years of buildup only to feed him to Law and end all of his buildup. Which speaks highly on the character he's being fed to if anything.
No name Vice Admirals don't mean shit to me. Idc how strong they are, easy to create a character built to be defeated than to discard one you respect. Lucci is like the Crocodile's, Doffy's, Katakuri's of this verse in that he was big name and big deal for Luffy.
I'm still not fully convinced Oda brought him back to be fed to Zoro, but if he did that is a very big deal and shows me Oda still respects Zoro.