Is that why he lost to kuma then needed to go all out with luffy going all out with sanji going all out to take out one pacifista.
Zoro is strong but he doesnt defy the manga's powerlevels lmao, and i dont see him as strong or stronger than luffy. I have to wonder this weird need for people to have zoro just skip levels. Dont you guys want your voice struggle to the top? Making his eventual rise that much sweeter? Whats the point of him already beeing over YC lvl when he never fought yc guys at all to level up from it?
Zoro was injured fatally thanks to Kuma in TB while Luffy was fully healthy and Sanji was pretty fair in health. Zoro couldn't really go all out thanks to that. Hell that's an extreme Haki bloom if you think about it.
Zoro has been training with the WSS longer than Luffy trained with Rayleigh, Zoro trained with a teacher that is nearly identical in his fighting style while Luffy could only get basic haki training from Rayleigh. Unlike Luffy who just kept fighting animals, Zoro already beat all the Baboons on his 1st day, and the only one left to train him was Mihawk, a legit Top Tier. It's not that Zoro is skipping levels. It's the fact that Zoro came out of the timeskip immensely powerful, and in my opinion at this point way more powerful than Luffy.
Being a MC doesn't make you more powerful than your allies just because.