First of all, i dont think Luffy cares about territory, he will definely protect the island where people he considers friends live in, but he dosent demand compensation for any of that stuff like BM and kaido do, they rule their territory. i cant see Luffy doing that at all.
Second, depending what you consider a great pirate he already is....Remenber, Kidd is pretty strong even when put in the new world where only the best of pirates are, its no exageration to say he already is in the 1% strongest people in the world, specialy when you consider the average level of people in the normal oceans where the huge majority of people live, and even in the grand line.
I mean, how many people live in the Op world? i would say its enough for 100-200 people to be at the very least 1% of the world population, and Kidd is definely in the top 100 strongest characters in the series.