That’s why I’m a little confused by the side panel that implies Gaban said something important to Sanji
People keep saying he said X, Y, or Z and none of them make sense narratively
“You’re stifling your spear of grit” as a callback would be cool but makes no sense since Gaban’s known Sanji for 5 minutes
“Your Germa genes are another way to counter them” How would he know that? There’s no guarantee that he knows Sanji’s name and even if he does how would he know that the exoskeleton has a unique reaction to Imu’s gifted immortality?
“Your flames can counter their regeneration” Again, no way for him to know he even uses fire. Not to mention it’s been all but confirmed that his flames are separate from Germa entirely so he’d have no way of knowing about its existence
Now Oda foregoes logic sometimes so it could still be any one of these but I can’t say it would be satisfying for Sanji’s character
He could have just said "i dont sense it in you".
People came up with this moronic headcanon of people "sensing" other's dormant coc.
That's not how it ever worked in the story.
Characters only are aware of having it, whether Oda says it on some SBS, say it inside the story (Kid) or if they use it at least once in the story.
He can't sense it in Sanji if Sanji hasn't unlocked it yet. It's not rocket science. It's not a conspiracy, it's just how it's always been.
Sanji is a salty character. Ever since Usopp gloated about appearing on Luffy's bounty, Sanji already was mad about it.
He got mad about only luffy and zoro having bounties after alabasta.
He got mad about his drawn poster.
He got excited for having a bounty higher than Zoro's, and now he is mad because even Jimbo has a bounty higher than his.
It's always been a thing.
And now he's mad about not having Conqueror's Haki, especially since Zoro has it, and it is a REQUIREMENT for fighting the WG members.
Remember against Queen, his inner monologue. (what's more useful to be at the Pirate King's side?)
Sanji has a drive to be stronger if needed without sacrificing his humanity.
It just needs to be explored, which is a chance for it to happen now. He can either unlock it here, like the usual arc PU, but it is, by OP standards, that SANJI alone is gonna get some PU, while Luffy and Zoro dont. Can it happen? Sure. But my bet would be that this is his future PU.
Exoskeleton compensates the fact that Sanji isn't a CoA specialist. So in order to compete with people with better CoA than his, he gets the exoskeleton, and it also allows him to upgrade his flames.
But for more AP, the way now is through CoA 2.0, aka, ACOC. That's all. Power of Love, so far, isn't "AP". Power of Love so far only allows him to perform stuff that shouldn't be possible, like stopping a laser beam, or enduring his own flames.