I don't know how the fact that Zoro actually took this long to defeat Apoo despite ganging up on him alongside Drake, the samurai and Beast pirates and outright stating that he doesn't want to waste any time fighting him gets interpreted in a way that elevates Zoro.
I for one would have never expected Apoo to last this long in that scenario before this all happened, so if anything, this is a hella disappointing performance from Zoro...