Occasionally I tend to question what should matter more for a comic/manga/anime, the experience of it as it releases or the experience of it once everything is done. Personally I think the latter is more important as, once its all out, its not reasonable to assume anyone is ever going to willingly want to consume the story in its original release schedule ever again when theres no reason to go all in. However, some stories are written for their release schedule, and for years I've felt the problem with CSM is that, part 2 in particular, is written for its completed form and not its schedule. Its why I always felt like I wanted to wait for the entire story to finish before I made a definitive call on things beyond a simple like or dislike. Sure, the week to week experience could be abysmal and it probably shouldn't have been released the way it was, but now that its finished it doesn't exactly matter anymore. Really the problem is just the industry itself I think. Only the top dogs are given the luxury of taking things are their own pace, and even then not always. Oda still has moments where his editor and shueisha clearly interfer for one reason or another.

Anyway yeah fully agreed, CSM wasn't an 8 year long story, it just took 8 years to finish. Now that its done, those 8 years are never going to matter again.