germa as a whole is at best as strong as 5VA and a few battleships which is nothing
did oda hyped the mythical army too much ?
That's more than enough for being considered a formidable force in the New World. On top of that, their army is disposable and can be replicated and they are willing to take a bullet for those 5 VA level fighters.
Germa in my opinion lived up to the supposed level they should be on.
You cannot expect them to be an equal to a Yonko crew! If so, they wouldn't try to ally with Big Mom to ease their way to conquer North Blue easier without enemy putting resistance.
They are a capable group who can support you with military force that is willing to die for the mission as well as 5 veteran level fighters. That imo is "GOOD ENOUGH"
You shouldn't have higher expectation than the norm to begin with!
Oda didn't hype them beyond imagination. It's the fandom who actually got rediculous and thought that Sanji's family as "Assassin family" would be the Zodiac from Hunter x Hunter
You guys had expectation Oda himself didn't set up by comparing the Vinsmoke to the Zodiac LOL!
But generally, the level of force you are talking about here is basically >>> than a buster call
Cause Buster call = 5 VA with 10 ships
Germa = 5 VA fighters with a KINGDOM composed of MANY ships
It's a "Good enough" military might to be called "formidable" even by New World standard!
Again, do not compare it to the Zodiac, and do not try to compare them to Yonko or Rev Army, or Navy, cause otherwise, Doflamingo would have mentioned Germa as part of the speech about who controls the sea. Oda was reasonable with his hype and they lived up to that level of hype. It's the fandom who were putting too much expectation that isn't there, and when it was not met, people started to look at the "Reasonable results" as disappointing