I'm not going to deny individual strength is relevant to becoming influential in the pirate world, but I think guys like Buggy demonstrate individual strength is not absolutely necessary in every circumstance.
I'm not saying that 'the subordinates like Jack and Cracker determine Big Mum's bounty'. I'm saying that owning an army of capable fighters that allows you to assert your will, or controlling huge amounts of territory, or having evil deeds, or stuff that adds to your threat level, like weapons production, are all things to contribute to an emperor's bounty.
Like, I personally don't think that Blackbeard is necessarily that much weaker than the other emperors. I think the reason his bounty is lower than the other emperors, is because he is still in the process of amassing territory and military might.
''Guys like Buggy'',
Name one person other than Buggy, then you can use that word ''guys like''.
Buggy is the only person who managed to do that in pirate worlds because of;
- An incredible luck of events that the prisoners actually believed they escaped because of Buggy's power, when it was actually Luffy's strength, and Blackbeard removed the poison wall in level 2, and then they thought Buggy opened up the Gates of Justice when it was actually because Blackbeard pirates.
- They heard Buggy was Roger's crew mate, and everyone would thought he should be really strong for that,
- Prisoners thought that Buggy is so strong that he can challenge even Shanks and Whitebeard without fear, and his powers were perfect counter for Mihawk's fighting ability, he wasn't afraid of Mihawk as well for that reason.
In the end, Buggy doesn't rule the pirates with his politic abilities or for different reasons, with an incredible luck, he gives the impression that he is incredibly strong while he is not. Otherwise they wouldn't follow Buggy, then it didn't end with that, they give Shichibukai status to Buggy and he used that to his advantage as well.
In the end, even Buggy's organzation couldn't rule long, and there isn't anyone with significant strength that would make a huge difference in Buggy's power, once he lost his Shichibukai title, he said he will escape, he won't even rely the prisoner he gathered against the marines.
There are only one example you can really find, and that's only exception in the pirate world due to numerous reasons and E.Oda's joke.
The point is in pirate worlds, you either need an individual power, or if there is an exception like ''Buggy'', then they need to think that person is also incredibly powerful. I really don't see how anyone can use Buggy as an excuse unless they don't read the manga that how did that actually happen, even says ''guys like Buggy'' when we never see anything like that before.
And even in Buggy's case, the amount of power he can gather is still limited as I said before, he couldn't even challenge the marine forces with the power he gathered, he was also relying on his Shichibukai status to survive, once he lost that, he starts to run despite the prisoners still follows him. Buggy still couldn't deceive someone powerful like a Vice-admiral level person, otherwise they could easily sense with CoO Haki that Buggy isn't that strong, and anyone with average or above average intelligence could also tell Buggy is not that strong, they wouldn't follow him.
In the end, there could be only exceptions in pirate worlds like Buggy, that exception with only comes with an incredible luck, and it's a limited power which is not considerable enough.
In the pirate worlds individual strength determines everything, stop making up excuses.