Makes sense, otherwise why would Oda bring it up in the first place to go no where? And imagine the actual hype to put a serious but temporary Zoro vs Sanji fight to proceed with the Onigashima dialogue?
Seems like gold for him to use that has actual setup.
EDIT: I will take my L for overstimating Oda here, but could really be slick imo and feed the toxic fanboys to all hell