He would be a worse author if his method of building Carrot up to being a Strawhat was to mostly ignore her.
Shinobu has been more relevant than Carrot has on Wano. Shinobu. Who isn’t even one of the Scabbards.
Like Yamato or loathe her, Oda is trying very much to sell her to the fans, by doing the simple, most basic thing required- actually give the character screen time.
There really isn’t anything all that special about how Carrot has written.
Carrot is just a lesser version of Vivi, Law, Kine’mon and Momo. Characters who have sailed with and bonded with the Strawhats over multiple islands. She’s more important than others like Kanjuro (arguably, he’s had more of an effect on the plot but less of an impact on the Strawhats), Raizo or Johnny and Yosaku, but a good step behind the main four that I’ve mentioned in relevance.
But when it comes to flashback, connection with Luffy, role in the story, she is drastically behind the four guys I first mentioned.
Her moment to shine was on WCI where she did exactly what Pedro told her to do and ensured that the Strawhats were able to sail on. And her story with Perospero isn’t done just yet, but will be soon. That’s about the extent of what is expected from Carrot, based on how (un)important she has been.
Does she need to find out why the Strawhats are important? Sure. Is that a reason for her to become one? No. The Scabbards know as much as Pedro did. They aren’t joining. Yamato knows even more, and she actually is going to go sailing with the crew. Carrot’s redundant. She was always overshadowed in this Dawn plot by Momo and Kine’mon, and now Yamato has came storming in as well.
Well, she could hardly appear any less often.