Youre trying to force the same structure as naruto to this, when this series has always been about inherited wills and guess what? Imu couldve inheritted the Earth Gods aka the Devils will, same way Blackbeard inheritted Davys and Luffy inheritted Nikas.
So even in your own interpretation, Imu is completely redundant. Lmfao
You correctly point out that
Blackbeard is the embodiment of the inherited Will villain, since he inherited the Will of Davy Jones (who Imu is still afraid of btw), but then you’re like “well Imu could be this too!”
Proof that you don’t understand how stories are structured. Making Oda create one inherited will villain, but then having the final villain be another inherited will villain, would be like if Oda introduced a second Akainu, Imu is completely redundant by your own interpretation since Blackbeard fits the inherited will trope far better than Imu does. We don’t even know anything about who Imu supposedly inherited his will from? Lol
Not sure why you want such a vapid ending to the story over something more nuanced.
Your ending to the story is literally “here’s an inherited will final villain. Okay, now here’s another inherited will final villain.” Lol
How is my ending to the manga vapid when your ending to the story is just the exact same theme repeated twice for no clear reason.
Under my ending to the story, Imu is a subverted final villain trope distracting from the true, hidden, primordial evil that caused the calamity of the first world. Under your ending to the story, Imu is just “here’s Blackbeard again!” Lol
Blackbeard, Luffy’s true foil and the embodiment of the inherited Will trope, and the Sea Devil, the calamity of the OP world and the primordial causal evil, each fulfill their own unique narrative roles and are not just copy/pasting of the exact same theme. They each fulfill their own separate but equally important roles.