The problem is that his priorities aren't just different than what we're expecting but nonsensical. Jack's character was introduced two hundred chapters ago and had a prominent role as a villain of one arc and Oda has been completely unable to develop a slightly emotional showdown for his and the minks subplot. Same with Perospero: the reason why readers had expectation on him was the fact that he entered Onigashima disgusted by the alliance, thinking of inheriting the crew and allying himself with Marco, only for his character to be reduced to nothingness.
Oda has a huge problem with involving so many characters in one arc because he can't write more elaborated plots, so most of this filler he comes up with ends up resolved in an anecdotal way. He had tons of opportunities for tons of characters and he chose the most basic, boring, uninspired way to handle them. He's either too tired or not good enough, or both, but his current story is bigger than his abilities.