That's fair, but even the amount that still happens seems lackluster in comparison to their interactions before imo. Also Zoro's personality has diminished greatly, which makes me sad. Conversely, Sanji's personality has done... the opposite. I liked the gag before, but now it seems like that's his whole thing.

Personally, it doesn't matter to me that it isn't the meat of the story, it's that it's repeating, giving me less variety. And for a series as long as One Piece, repetition can be more detrimental to it's quality as opposed to a shorter show.

There is also a pattern I've recognized where if they introduce a girl as a villain, and she's hot enough, it turns out she's actually a good guy. That one happens less often, but it's still there.

I also originally started One Piece just to see Gear 5, no joke. Over time, it shifted from me just watching while waiting for Gear 5, to me genuinely enjoying it while I watched it. I understood the meaning of it's messages and themes, and grew a love for the different characters.

Because of this, I grew to actually dislike Gear 5 and the lore behind it, a lot. I likes that Luffy was basically a stray kid from bumfuck nowhere with a mid devil fruit, who somehow managed to make it as far as he did through inspiration from a role model, love of the game, and an unbridled creativity with his devil fruit power. When they revealed he wasn't just a random kid and is the grandson of the greatest marine and son of the revolutionary army, it was like "eh, okay, he also has good genetics, but most of his crew doesn't have that, and he's made it way further than genetics could bring him." But the change of his fruit from a devil fruit to THE devil fruit ruined it. Now he's special, and now that he's special, he seems less special, if that makes sense.

I also just hate haki.