They're just coping with databooks and VC secondary source bs, realistically Oda won't do anything crazy for Mihawk at this point, even at MF he at least got to cut the iceburg. He's now playing the straight man to Buggy the clown
Look at 6 years of hype for Rocks "investigating the secrets of the world" and it turns out it meant that he went to Imcels room, after probably knowing about it because he was a freaking davy, and his knowledge had pretty much nothing to do with the GV incident. We all thought Uranus would be involved and what Garling discovered, but nope, it's just about our favorite most built up clan in history, the Davys.
Oda has probably decided to rush through stuff he considers unimportant so he can actually end the manga now, if you care about anything but Nika nonsense, your agenda is fucked