Dont have much to say except Ive been screaming it from the rooftops that its not a good look for the arc when Oda only keeps 3 characters here to act as your arc threat.
I think at this point One Piece has been trending consistently of setting up its bigger endgame conflict, but Oda also needs to close out plotlines he had teed up like Kuma, Loki and Rocks.
That is to say just prepare your asses off for anything and everything to feed into whatever big war he wants to do near Lodestar or Laugh Tale. Shanks, Blackbeard, CG, Marines, SHF, Knights of God, Gorosei, Seraphim, RAs, etc, all exist to service this plotline. Its just that Oda couldn't skip shit like Egghead and Elbaph to get there.