crocodile having a 1.9b bounty wasn’t much of a surprise after his defeat from luffy he’s gotten a lot stronger knowing he wasn’t supposed to b introduced so early it makes sense
he just needs some feats now
See, here's the thing.
Crocodile fought & lost to Whitebeard before Alabasta.
After his loss in Alabasta, the Gorosei were shown worried about the Power Balance.
He came back in Marineford and was clashing with people like Akainu, Mihawk, Doflamingo etc,.
His frozen bounty was a huge deal for pre ts standards (highest bounty was 550 million) and just like the other Warlords, his bounty got updated now to post-Wano standards.
So do you really believe the idea that Crocodile was comparable to pre-TS Luffy level ?
I think Crocodile was way above pre-TS Luffy and always worth 1.9 Billion.
But Alabasta was an arc written for him to lose, and he lost after 3x rounds with Luffy having plot armour.