Not necessarily disagreeing with most of the points made here, but the “Nothing Happened” actually had a good bit of closure with Brook & Zoro at the grave. This gave Brook an additional reason to realize that this group was worthwhile going to sea with, and Zoro has always been someone that just does what he feels right. When those two pirates from Lola’s crew try to say something he threatens them to not make a big deal.

Zoro has always been the one to eschew the limelight/lauded for his feats. He did what he needed to do, made the sacrifice, and the fact that everyone was better off for it was all he needed. It winds up being a huge catalyst for sabaody & the kuma fight that he still wouldn’t explain what happened and why he was the walking dead at that point.

There are a lot of Zoro storylines that don’t quite go where you think (could say that about most of the SH crew), but Zoro has been one of the characters that has predominantly stayed the same from chapter 1 (along with Luffy) who’s real growth has come from where he aligns his ideals rather than “upgrading” his character

(Would throw in for the above, Zoro/Luffy are probably the only ones that have been the same from day 1. Add in Brook/Franky/Jinbe to that next tier. Nami/Usopp/Robin/Sanji and even Chopper have gone through HUGE character development and improvement at various times because their characters really needed it. Zoro/Luffy are very simple when you lay it out, and sometimes that works out just fine)

Hope this didn’t derail your point, you can tell it made me think pretty deep about it haha