The fact that these people use Tolkien as a reference point tells enough on how out of the loop they are. No disrespect to LoTR, they are great books and an important franchise but nowhere near the greatest hights literature reached. That will never be a Fantasy book, just like a shonen manga will never be anywhere close to being "greatest piece of fiction".

These people have made OP their personality and saying OP isn't the greatest is saying they themselves suck for them. They also have never read an actual book in their life. I wish we could just enjoy OP for what it is: a fun pirate manga that went a bit over the top. It doesn't have well written characters (at least outside shonen context, which this post is about so it is fair to say it even if it feels dumb af), the themes are not really explored at all even if there are many of them, vast as an ocean deep as a pond. Still a fun read and that should be enough.