My favorite thing about this debate is watching the Sanji fanboys move the goalposts and come up with new qualifications (popularity now?) for what, in canon, has only been mentioned three times in a twenty year series and has never been exercised as an explicit rule for the story. The amount of bullshit that’s been said about Jinbe ever since he said on FI, from him being Sanji’s equal because of Wadatsumi (still laughing my ass off at this one) to saying that he would die and would never actually join, is even more hilarious in retrospect as we see Jinbe be highlighted alongside Luffy and Zoro, because it demonstrates the depth of their insecurity regarding the only value they get from their favorite character, his strength in relation to others.
Meanwhile, Oda gives absolutely zero damns about the fanboys, and gives Jinbe the spotlight he damn well deserves as the second or third strongest member of the crew, while Sanji has to get a raid suit to be competitive against mid tier New World opponents. It’s okay though, Sanji fanboys, he’ll still be in the top five at least, after Yamato joins.