@Darth:
And people said the same thing when Punk Hazard ended and Dressrosa was in opening stages.
Not to mention that we are just receiving a pay-off to a long build up, if you don't remember.
Pay off of build up for a number of characters others than Strawhats. Thats the thing.
If you call Dressrosa build up a long one - thats your problem, in scale of saga / in scope of how long it took before to build up all the tension and emotions we are far from boiling point. While I understand concerns of people about arc lacking satysfying pay off for all plots being builded up- all events are in scale of only one island, one country and Odas plan is to push Strawhats towards World-scale. We wont get wowed in same ways we used to before time skip, bigger things are being set up and story changed scope for completely different target - World. Islands are not end game so to say. Crocodile was "end gamer" of some sorts as through "A LOT" of chapters was build up only for him and we had no idea on who is next or what will happen after him or that there will be far stronger enemy going after Strawhats if they beat Crocodile(we have that with Doflamingo-Kaido relation and we know consequences of what Luffy and Law is doing now). Thats partially tension killer and Oda cannot go all out with Dressrosa as he wont have much more material for reveal and keeping things with at least some suspense for next arc. Look at Sanji vs Vergo - if Sanji would do better than he did we would expect since Punk Hazard that Seats will not be very challenging enemies and it would be tension killer. So Oda decided to put Sanji in discussable circumstances against Mingos right hand man, giving that guy some sort of (discussional) upper hand. All hints towards fact that its early in New World and given status of Doflamingo, Vergo and also seats have to be made relevant for long after Dressrosa so we look back and understand why Sanji for example had to struggle in some ways. Oda has to keep things in adventurous character where protagonists arent too safe. So thats why its balancing and buying time up until not by most.
When it comes to pay off for strawhats then we get highest emotional points of story. Thats the difference between Dressrosa end and Next Arc end that should be saga closure of sorts.
Look for example at fight Zoro had and how much of just buying time from Oda it was or how long it took for Oda to build up Luffys hostility towards Doflamingo.
Zoros character time will be at Wano most likely, thats why we seen him fighting Pica at this moment and not for example other executive- it would make fight most likely shorter.
All in constructed in a way that makes it possible for Oda to hold off with strength reveal for each Strawhat as long as possible. When this arc ends and conflict with Kaido will be pushed into picture we have to feel that Strawhats have chance of fighting back and not getting simply slaughtered against Yonkos crew.
Luffy will have fight where he will show being around on par with Doflamingo, this would make us feel that even as Doflamingo was in fear of Kaido, Luffy isnt walking dead but has a chance to fight back and with good, lucky circumstances he can challenge a Yonko along with other Supernova(like Law).
Even Doflamingo family might be only builded up in some ways to soon get slaughtered by Kaido or his men, we dont know if for example Pink wont get killed off and his and Frankys meeting will never come. Oda shown us a lot of history of Doflamingo pirates, people that are decades on sea and make us really get fond of them in some way.
Morias crew was slaughtered by Kaido, guy that Strawhats and Heart pirates really really really pissed(if we look from end of an arc perspective). He cannot be reasoned with so he might want to kill also Doflamingo for his failure along with his crew. This would highten tension as readers would see that in contrast to Dressrosa some of Strawhats lives are really on the line. We didnt yet seen limit of what Strawhats are yet capable so tension comes when they get to push through a challenge of fighting people that are stronger than them, this is not present on Dressrosa, this is what One Piece after time skip lacks compared to pre-ts time. We are now at the moment of New World saga where Luffy will be pushed to his limits most likely(tired worn out Luffy but still), we will see how destructive Zoro can be now(I want Ashura glimpse to be shown before Wano, next chapter would be perfect) and Sanji after being off from manga for more than 1.5 year I think is 100% set up for doing some really amazing things. All for us to get to point where Strawhats enemies are even more capable than them.
Strawhats are facing boss of New Worlds underworld in first line so to say, he is "masters of shadows" of New World because he cannot challenge face on likes of Yonko, he is extremely capable silver medalist with a lot of luck and planning skills. As great as his crew was hyped up to be there ended up getting slaughtered by various New World fighters(Hajrudin, Barto, Cabbage..) and the difference between Doflamingos crew and Yonkos crew is that Yonkos crew is tough enough to be fending off all kinds of challengers, often for decades(Whitebeard pirates). Doflamingo pirates - Seats the Most - are rusty compared to Yonkos crew. They sat at their throne trying to keep status quo while Yonko crews are in top notch shape because of being constantly active, to stay a Yonko crew big part of crew have to do things like burining down countries(BM pirates).
I see Pica, Trebol and Diamante as threats as big as Yonko commanders, but not as they are now. Only Diamante looks like he was constantly fighting, still - with fodders on arena.
When Strawhats like Zoro will get to Wano or they will get to fight Yonko commanders I expect battles as hard and as concentrated on Strawhats as it was in time of Alabasta or EN and as tense and memorable as it was back then. Right now we are not yet up to that point in New World.