You were wrong on the Kid part, in both narrative and hype. There was no reason (narrative or powerscaling) to expect anything else, bar Kid putting up more of a fight I suppose.
With respect to antagonists however, you have a real and solid point here. I have been thinking about it for a while too.
There is NO hype for the final villains.
Akainu and Kizaru are the only antagonistic marines with some threat level
Let's ignore Imu and Gorosei for a moment like you said, cause they are unknown factors.
Look at how much the deck is stacked.
"Good guys"
- Strawhats + grand fleet
- RHP
- Old man trio - Garp/Sengoku (possible sword founders), Rayleigh
- Dragon and revos
- Cross Guild
- Law (probably will be taken out by BB)
"Bad guys"
- Blackbeard pirates: Blackbeard got scared off by old Ray. Then we don't know where the commanders stand, they hypeless and featless, bar Aokiji and Shiryuu to an extend. And even here, Aokiji might be an undercover sword member
- antagonist marines: Only Akainu and Kizaru have hype. Fujitora's portrayal is meh + he might turn, Greenbull has good feats but his portrayal took big hit
- Seraphim: incompetent clowns almost exclusively carried by King's genes. Basically glorified punching bags for competent fighters.
************
Bad guys failures so far, post Wano.
- ZERO Shichibukai got captured.
- Sabo and a couple of clowns managed to evade two admirals. Sabo became flame emperor from that
- Greenbull got scared by Shanks and ran off
- Blackbeard got scared by Rayleigh and ran off
- WG losing Vegapunk as an asset
- Seraphims exposed as glorified punching bags to competent fighters
L after L after L
In before anyone starts pulling up powerscaling excuses, yeah I'm aware of them, this isn't strictly a powerscaling point, but moreso about the "feel" or "hype" surrounding these character,
And this after LOda teased fake tension with "Ohh Sabo, Hancock, Vivi"
Where is the tension ?????????