The Straw Hats not including Nika most definitely got more characterization and moments in the Pre-TS, primarily by the virtue of their characters needing to be established in their introduction arcs, but even beyond that, like Nami's navigation and guts being the prinary reason they didn't die on their way to Sjypiea, or the Ussop stuff in Wayer 7 and Enies Lobby, or Franky burning the blueprints. This alone proves that the Straw Hats barring Nika contributed much more to the story before the timeskip than they do now.