I honestly thought earlier that the Bartolomeo cover story would be completely insignificant, like most cover stories, though it's true that in recent years they have increasingly connected to the main story, like MADS, Pudding's kidnapping... When Shanks and his crew appeared at the end of Wano and mentioned Bartolomeo's rampage on one of their islands, I still thought the whole thing would be wrapped up with Shanks realizing how much of a Luffy fan the guy is, and they'd close the matter with some typical One Piece humor effect at the end. To my greatest surprise, that's not what happened.
At the same time, based on the current narrative, it would be completely ridiculous if there wasn't some kind of rift in the relationship between Luffy and Shanks. With Bartolomeo, one of the captains of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, burning Shanks' flag and replacing it with Luffy's, they basically declared 'war' against them. Now Shanks has shown up, beaten them to a pulp, destroyed their ship, and who knows who survived and who didn't. If, after all this, Luffy and his crew were to meet Shanks and his pirate crew, and this didn't affect their encounter in some way, then this twist would be very poorly written
At the same time, based on the current narrative, it would be completely ridiculous if there wasn't some kind of rift in the relationship between Luffy and Shanks. With Bartolomeo, one of the captains of the Straw Hat Grand Fleet, burning Shanks' flag and replacing it with Luffy's, they basically declared 'war' against them. Now Shanks has shown up, beaten them to a pulp, destroyed their ship, and who knows who survived and who didn't. If, after all this, Luffy and his crew were to meet Shanks and his pirate crew, and this didn't affect their encounter in some way, then this twist would be very poorly written