So here's the deal with people bringing up Sengoku, Catarina, Yamato df, etc.. etc...
That should be an even bigger red flag on the fact that Nika was potentially a real person all along. You don't have any elaborate myths or tales on the exploits of Buddha, or Kitsune or Makami, or any of those guys Devil Fruit deities.
Nika himself actually has a story to be told, and it's one the WG believed pertinent enough to erase from history itself. If he was meant to just be some corporal entity, thought to only exist to be worshipped, then there would be no need for him to have his entire existence, or lack there of for that matter, erased from history.
That should be an even bigger red flag on the fact that Nika was potentially a real person all along. You don't have any elaborate myths or tales on the exploits of Buddha, or Kitsune or Makami, or any of those guys Devil Fruit deities.
Nika himself actually has a story to be told, and it's one the WG believed pertinent enough to erase from history itself. If he was meant to just be some corporal entity, thought to only exist to be worshipped, then there would be no need for him to have his entire existence, or lack there of for that matter, erased from history.