Hindsight is 20/20
CoC was a much rarer ability back then. People couldn't fathom someone other than the strongest marines/pirate captains having it back then. In fact, Zoro/Mihawk stans didn't believe it either. They used to vehemently deny the existence of CoC applications outside of knocking fodder out and pretend like it was useless because even they didn't think Zoro would have it so they just downplayed the ability to upscale Zoro compared to Luffy. Zoro unlocking it did put that thing to bed though.
Eh I was around back then but I’ll admit it was a bit more split
Mihawk was always basically guaranteed to have it (to me) due to proximity to Shanks and his title
Though I’ll admit that it wasn’t seen as a
guarantee because initially we didn’t know CoC could do anything besides knock out fodder. That’s the main reason why people weren’t pressed to put every single strong character in the CoC category
As soon as ACoC became a thing it was over. Every fruitless top tier was guaranteed to have it in their arsenal
Funnily enough the confirmation came in the same chapter as Zoro unlocking it iirc