You were not wrong, this is exactly how it was for the most part.
The conversations then devolved into downplay and mockery (as usual) which led the hardcore ZKK fans to double down and overexaggerate.
I'll take myself as an example and always said, that either Zoro deals the finishing blow (beheading) above the flower capital after a group fight (SHs was my bet) or Luffy and Kaido incapacitate each other but Kaido wakes up before Luffy (like most of the time) and Zoro finishes Kaido while he tries to kill Luffy. The reasoning was to parallel Ryuma so everyone had to see Zoro behead the Dragon while he was threatening everyyhing, not just killing a downed opponent.