Its not a poor excuse. The fruit was unawakened in the hands of a rookie they probably felt good about crushing, so they sent people after him on multiple occasions, whether it was about the fruit or Luffy is irrelevant (to directly address your last point). It doesn't matter why they were going after him, it has no bearing on the act of catching him or him getting away. The reason doesn't help or hinder Luffy's eventual escape. They sent people after him, that's all that matters.
As far as Dragon goes, what i said doesnt make it more problematic. He's not a moron, if he recognizes that they're targeting his son for any reason other than the ordinary, especially if its dangerous to the World Government, hes not going to sit back and let it happen. He will have intervened. Not to mention that he's running a clandestine organization, which makes it obvious to them that he would have spies in place, which means it would be more likely that he would find out about any overt action on their part as it pertained to Luffy.
As far as Dragon goes, what i said doesnt make it more problematic. He's not a moron, if he recognizes that they're targeting his son for any reason other than the ordinary, especially if its dangerous to the World Government, hes not going to sit back and let it happen. He will have intervened. Not to mention that he's running a clandestine organization, which makes it obvious to them that he would have spies in place, which means it would be more likely that he would find out about any overt action on their part as it pertained to Luffy.
Trying to use them going after him for incidental issues is irrelevant because all other reasons should pale in comparison.
That’s such a funny response. The effort put into a hunt or chase is obviously heavily dependent on the reason for it. Going after someone because they created a dirty bomb that can level large cities would obviously be different from going after someone because of a parking ticket.
Saying “the police knocked on his door to see if he had money for the ticket but left when no one answered” is not an adequate response to “why didn’t they catch that guy with the nuclear bomb?”
Lol…they sent people after him…please.
And now you think that Dragon has the teleportation fruit so he could go from Baltigo to anywhere Luffy is in an instant once his spider-sense is triggered that Luffy is in danger?
Yet somehow several of his comrades got imprisoned and he wasn’t there for them.
Why should concern about Dragon potentially showing up be greater than a fruit that poses a greater threat than him that it needed to be erased and they’ve been hunting for 800+ years while Dragon has only been an issue for less than 30?