The first time I read those panels in chapter 1041, this sounded like oda was making a setup toward Momo having a gap in knowledge that he needed to understand before being sure to open this country..
So there are two possibilities for me:
Either Yamato understands enough about the importance of opening this country that she will be able to guide Momo toward a good choice..
Either Momo is not ready to open this country at all.. and he needs that knowledge.
For a long time, i've been rooting for the Mixed Zodiac hypothesis (an hypothesis where both Chinese and Vietnamese Zodiac are mixed together in the final composition of the crew). If that hypothesis is bound to become a reality we are 3 strawhats short:
The Rabbit
The Rat
The Dragon
Also in the last few weeks, I have been impressed by Momo... and his sudden growth is ruling out the impossibility for him to join. The problem until now was that he was lacking the purpose to go out at sea and a post.. Now it's different! Momo still don't have a post, but there is the setup for him for a purpose at sea:
To discover why he should be opening his country. In practice this would ressemble that:
Momo ask Yamato for a favor. Then, he asks Luffy to leave with him. In the same time.. Tama will find a way to follow Momo (she he bound to follow him everywhere if we look at what happened in Wano).. She could simply sneak on the Sunny or she could also do what Momo did.. by asking SHinobu to mature up.. remember that Oda put a dream into Tama's head, he don't usually do that if he doesn't plan to fullfil those dreams. Maturing.. while being quite creepy indeed and following Momo in his adventure would be the perfect way to become a dazzling Kunoichi.
This would add the Rat and the Dragon on the ship..
Finally we discover that the favor Momo asked to Yamato was to regent the country during his journey. With all that we saw from Yamato. I really believe that she would agree with that.
The only missing animal would be the rabbit.
Like Oda said.. "new strawhat will come one after the others".. I think he wasn't lying here. And the best part is:
Everything would make sence.
Now.. this is just an hypothesis. But Momo right now, is closer to the sea than Yamato for me.
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The pop corns are already ready.

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Why should it be?
Sexism toward fictionnal character are rampant in all fandoms. There is also biggotery toward certains characters (furries / Lgbtq+) like transphobia or homophobia. Validism is sometimes an issue. And we witnessed the impact of toxic masculinity toward Sanji during the entirerity of Whole cake and his Moments with black Maria.
Really sexism is really not that surprising.