Nika didn't help, but what I really think is killing this forum is loss of passion for the story. Straight up you've got people who openly admitted they don't even read the actual chapter anymore and just the spoilers. People who admit they only "read" for a single character or faction. The passion is gone.
He could have easily handled this by having extra canon stories be told in the cover pages/stories instead of focusing on irrelevant bullshit.
To add nika has been used horribly. Luffy for 0 reason is spamming it: (agaisnt lucci, Saturn, giant animals in elbaf, gaban even when zoro was assisting him).
In wano it was supposed to be zoro and luffy combined effort that put kaido down which would still add to the fact that 1v1 bet on kaido while at the same time showing luffy and zoros growth and still tying in the zoro and ryuma lore with luffy and the sun god lore. Also all straw hats that didnt have haki were supposed to learn BASIC armament haki since armament haki was the whole "Schtick"
Elbaf should have literally been franky and sanjis arc in terms of power development. Infact this was the perfect time for all devil fruit straw hats to receive awakening
Elbaf is ok but ofas pacing with flash backs needs to be adjusted quickly. The focus on conquerors haki is nice but again this leaves alot of the straw hats out of play. Infact all strawhats are out of play except luffy zoro and possibly brook