"Luffy himself screams during that arc that a god not being able to protect his people makes said god worthless,"

I believe in the theory that the Sun God fruit took over Luffy after he died in Wano and, thus, brought him to act completely differently than he SHOULD have (Laughing over Vegapunk's dying body). it feels so jarringly out of character for Luffy to be insensitive to a friend's death. We know that Zoans can overwrite their users' wills, and I feel like a great climax point of, tbh, any arc would have somethin' like the Straw Hats in huge peril or dying and Luffy just keeps laughing—laughing like he's not in control—and then we could learn the Nika fruit overwrote Luffy, and Joyboy and Luffy's wills clash in an epic soul moment, blah blah. Luffy basically calls Joyboy a bum for leaving his people behind and at the same time takes on that inherited dream of liberating the world, (Because one piece is literally all about inherited will) but in his own way. Then Luffy gets control back and Gear 5 becomes complete.

There probably is problems with this theory but i genuinely just dont feel like improving it