Iits like saying Luffy is trash and cheap because he ate an akuma no mi LOL, the RS is not a cheap trick either. But lets also be real, he dosent put that much effort in being strong compared to how much Zoro and Luffy did in their training, specialy since his attention was diverted into cooking as well as getting stronger, even in his childhood he was learning more to cook than to fight. Thats why i say he is not in the level of Zoro much less Luffy.
DF are shortcuts... if you don't want to admit that, it's your choice... but yeah, Luffy took a short cut because of DFs...
However no one complains about it because he WAS INTRODUCED in chapter 1 as rubber man...
and because also the Rubber DF in base level powers is SOOOO WEAK compared to other DF... so Luffy had to work his way up for it and get creative with his DF... this is why no one complains... but let's say Oda gave him Magma fruit... that shit would be the biggest short cut of all time for MC to get...
It's a fact that Luffy got a short cut... but the jump with his DF is MADE through effort... because no one can become as creative as Luffy with Rubber...
It's a power that Ace himself looked down on at beginning and stated it's useless fruit in fighting... that's why people can ignore such shortcut because Luffy himself made it good...
But someone like Blackbeard for example, that bastard had the BIGGEST SHORTCUT in history if anime... he became a Yonko by breaking rules of One Piece, eating TWO DF... and also stealing WB fruit on spot by a method NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT... just because he read the book of DF
Wouldn't Sanji as someone who read the book know about the method too?
if that isn't biggest asspull in history that everyone ignores JUST BECAUSE he's a villain Zehahaha, I like dark villain, OMG type of fans... then I don't know what would be bigger asspull