@Robby:
But false equivalency aside, since they specifically picked poison immunity for their talking point, Luffy DOES in fact have poison immunity now. (First shown on Fishman Island, not Punk Hazard) The miracle cure DID in fact solve that problem for him forever more and if that was the only thing Magellan had available, Luffy could probably have taken him then, though still with trouble.
Luffy did not however develop ACID immunity, which is what Magellan was using at the end.
Luffy was coating himself in wax before Magellan busted out the stone infecting-virus-like-poison in the end (It wasn't…acid? We see people getting "infected" by it and keeling over. Luffy has his armor "cancelled" because the poison is spreading through it, not melting it). Luffy clearly did not want to touch regular-poison Magellan either, hence the wax, and the Kinjite "infect EVERYTHING poison" was then Magellans workaround. If we already establish that the immunity/tolerance/whatever to poison is only established post-skip, then why with this revisionist "Luffy could probably take on pre-Kinjite Magellan during the escape due to his immunity" when that was not established then, not framed at all like that, and when that idea greatly undermines the tension in retrospect? "Luffy just THOUGHT he still needed to dodge Magellans poison because he did yet not know he has immunity", all for the sake of...establishing that Oda is willing to discard threats with easy solutions, even if this was not really the case in Impel Down itself?
@Robby:
The strawhas were able to beat Moria and Oars because Luffy was able to absorb and hold 100 shadows, (Captured by the arc allies offscreen) something most people couldn't do.
The crew only survived Sabondy because a secretly loyal Warlord appeared out of literally nowhere and teleported them away to safety instead of letting an admiral wreck them.
Luffy only survived Magellan's poison because there happened to be a world class miracle healer 10 feet away that Bon happened to know of.
Luffy only survived the war because a crapload of top tier-players bailed him out multiple, multiple times.
Fishman Island was only saved because they happened to have a legendary magical mermaid princess that could talk to sea kings and get them to stop a boat from crashing.
Punk Hazard had Law already set up in advance to cover and deal with basically everything, including them escaping from their cages with keys and dealing with a mega death cloud due to plans he had before the crew even arrived.
Dresserossa they only won because some dwarves had spent a decade scouting out the scenario to know all the specifics of Sugar's powers and how to beat her.
This isn't new.
"They only turned the tables because of this one of a kind convenient ally" is their bread and butter.
But…just because it has precedence doesn’t mean its good. Or that people have to like it. Theres tonnes of precedence of Oda undoing deaths, that doesn’t mean it isn’t groan-worthy every time it happens. Because yes, “Ally helps out the straw Hats with unique skill or knowledge” is a trope, but that does not mean all iterations of the trope are created equal. Like, some new characters showing up at the butt end of Thriller Bark to drag Luffy aside and instantly dope him up with a hitherto unknown side-effect of the already grab-baggy Shadow fruit is not exactly Odas most elegant problem-solving writing. Local allies sitting the Straw Hats down to lay out a power point presentation of the exact things they need to do, the exact weaknesses to exploit has happened in literally every new world arc, that doesn’t make it any less blunt of a plot-streamlining tool.
With something like Shirahoshi and the sea kings it is at least an absolutely integral part of the arc it is in, it informs the actions of all the villains (it doesn't get forgotten like the Beast pirates' interest in Tamas ability post-Holdem), its central to the emotional peak of the flashback…the arc places Shirahoshi and her ability (which is a straightforward extension of Merpeoples ability to speak with marine life) front and centre, is constantly aware of how big a deal it is, and eventually reveals Shirahoshi as the reincarnation of literally unfathomable ancient power…it also doesn't come with the thematic implications of Tamas mind-slave fruit, and it isn't a completely specific "lock" and "key" where Shirahoshi could only ever save this one specific boat, compared to how Tamas ability is suited for neutralizing this extremely specific part of this specific villain crew, and thats what it is used for.
@Robby:
The beast pirates have the weakness that 90% of the fruits do nothing except make them smile forever. And the 10% that are good have high odds of having RIDICULOUS side effects that makes the abilities nearly unuseable like having a sentient animal with a mind of its own, or having your head grow out of somethings butt.
That's absolutely a weakness and a flaw in their system of making "powerful" warriors. Out of the dozens of users we've seen, how many of them have actually gotten good results? How many have actually been good to go for combat and not just one page jokes?
But…regardless of what you might think of them, the story itself does not agree that the Gifters are irrelevant. Even if they also look goofy, even if we are meta-aware of their relative power. Beyond the smile supply chain being the spine that connects everything from Punk Hazard to Wano, beyond Law framing targeting the smiles as a way to impact Kaidous strength from the start, these current chapters are saying the same thing. Its literally what the current chapter is all about, It informs the title even. The chapter makes a point of showing various combatants in trouble due to the interference of gifters to build up the relevancy of what Tama is doing, and what Tama is doing is framed with further relevance by her being targeted by an irate Queen. Tama giving the order totally upends the odds the CP0 squad had figured and leaves them in gratifying confusion, helps out all the aforementioned combatants instantly, has Nami and Usopp cheering her on, all to underline that this mattered.
The story absolutely is mining this for earnest impact, it is absolutely framing this as a big moment for the heroes, it absolutely wants you to care about it. But if the story wants this, then its also fair to have the foundation interrogated.
In turn, the more you disparage the gifter concept, the more you say that they don’t really matter, the more you’re saying that what we see this very chapter…doesn’t really matter that much. That removing the gifters from Jinbei, Franky and Dogkings battles didn’t really matter that much. That all the efforts of Usopp and Nami to protect Tama and help her, well-meaning though they they may be, didn’t really matter that much. In order to dismiss the criticism of Tamas ability by playing “the gifters don’t matter so it really isn’t that big a deal” card, the tradeoff is that you drain the chapter of what impact it may have. You can’t have it both ways.