Well yeah?
Think back to the other islands we’ve been to this far.
1. Punk Hazard - The children consider Nami and Chopper their saviors
2. Dressrosa - The Tontattas built a statue for Usopp as their hero alongside Noland and Luffy
3. WCI - Sanji was indirectly called the savior of Whole Cake Island and changed Germa
Yet Zoro has an entire subplot relating to Wano and in the end, he doesn’t get anything more than he did in alabasta.
Like that’s the big thing, was that Zoro is one of the main characters of One Piece yet oda has been slowly dwindling him down to being nothing more than a weapon for luffy.
Yeah but i guess what i'm saying is why did people expect this from Zoro at this stage?
In order for the citizenry to recognize him as a hero he would've needed to do something that was emotionally meaningful to the people of Wano, which naturally didn't as ZKK didn't either.
I don't see how him not receiving some heroic recognition is bad for the story when Zoro himself has never cared about that.
The most important characters in the arc know what he did, he came out of Wano incredibly stronger and with advanced CoC, we all know he'll eventually be known as the greatest swordsman so what's the big deal?