I agree with you.
The Gorosei are really Imu's personal bitches. They DEPEND on him. It's an undeniable fact. Meanwhile, the admirals have to serve the Celestial Dragons, yes, but they ultimately can decide whether they keep serving them or say "Fuck you all, I'm doing my own thing" like Kuzan and Fujitora had done.
They're strong, yes, but they're glorified bitches. If admirals get trashed for being corporate slaves, admiral haters better keep their energy in doing the same to the Gorosei.
The Gorosei’s relationship to Imu reminds me of a drug cartel.
Imagine you’re one of the Gorosei. And you’ve known Saturn and worked with him every day for
hundreds of years potentially. Then all of the sudden, a new Gorosei shows up, and you slowly realize that this means Saturn has been murdered for his perceived failure. Nobody told you Saturn was to be killed, nobody told you he was to be replaced, you are left to slowly realize these things for yourself, and slowly realize that if
you fuckup, the same thing awaits you.
It really reminds me of like the irl drug cartels. The One Piece inner WG is basically like a drug cartel ran by an immortal demon king lmfao.
And then there’s Garling. Garling seems like your classic politically scheming father, seemingly excited about the fact that he’s to replace Saturn, without really realizing that he sold his soul to Satan and could be killed at any time on a whim.
But the other Gorosei know it. Saturn was an immortal conqueror’s Haki possessing celestial dragon with an awakened mythical Zoan, and Imu flushed him down the toilet on a whim. Warcury and the other Gorosei know what’s up, everyone is replaceable to their overlord lol. They are not safe.
Legit, the Gorosei are the slaves that fanboys thought the Admirals were. By contrast the Admirals (especially the new ones) basically do whatever the fuck they want regardless of the orders. Akainu tries to keep them in check but he really can’t, and they bend and defy every order as severely as they can because they have their own agendas and motives. And there’s basically no consequence for them because the Marines need the Admirals more than they need the rest of the Navy lmfao.
So on the one hand, the Admirals pretty much get away with anything, even freeing Tenryubito slaves, with very little repercussions, meanwhile the Gorosei spend hundreds of years faithfully serving Imu only to get executed on a whim for the slightest of failures.
You can’t make this shit up. Oda is the biggest Admiral fanboy. He really hates the Gorosei and views them as objectively evil to treat them like this.