Ok, but Kuzan didn’t get help from literal fodder, he got help from several likely high tiers, one of which impaled Garp with a cheapshot. And the wavering excuse doesn’t make sense when Garp was having to fight his own student
Yeah, because Oda doesn´t like having top tiers lose to anyone in a clear 1v1, having help from the BBP makes the whole thing more efficent, and makes more sense story wise(Giving hype to Shiryu who will be zoros future fight etc)
Garp himself is a victim of this, given that we have him teaming up with a whole different top tier in Sengoku, against Shiki. This is used to downplay him as a lot weaker then Roger/WB, and this still happens a bit more n the French/Arab OP communities. Also, Garp is the one who said wavering is a sign of weakness, he isn´t very sympathetic to Kuzans situation really, this is pretty much fliped from the Sensei/evil student dynamic in Nardo with Hiruzen or Jiraiya really struggling at the idea of fighting their student.