I don’t get why people are still so shocked that Xebec turned out to be a hero-esque character btw. There’s no retcon here. Whitebeard following him was already a huge clue. I’ve been saying since last year that Xebec’s a Joyboy descendant. There were also a lot of hints from Kaido and Kuma’s flashbacks, observe how Linlin and WB described him. They were acting like tsunderes.
I'll be fair and argue that he was heavily implied to be a more gray character than what we are having now. Blackbeard parallel, Roger nemesis, etc.