Concerning the Toei matter - I don´t have a problem with Toei as a whole. Not even with the Toei branch responsible for One Piece as a whole, because over the years those guys have shown that they really know their One Piece and can handle it pretty well to transfer the story from the printed media to the audiovisual media. True from the very begining there have been differences from the manga but all in all it was bearable because thanks to the proper usage of voice actors and music Toei really did a large part into makin One Piece what it is nowadays. I can´t speak for the rest but I for myself know that even though I prefer the manga my understanding of the characters don´t go with their voices.
However at some point Toei just began to screw around big time with One Piece. I think that points starts eversince the anime went widescreen. NO, that doesn´t mean that the widescreen move was a screw up, because its not. But ever since that move the anime came to the point of "let´s change something about it". I´m not commenting on fillers here though the DBF fillers mess around with manga canon much more then the Apis or Arabasta fillers together did.
What I´m refering stuff like letting the previous episode recaps begin before the opening. That alone is not such an unusual move because MANY animes do that, but still it is strange that it got changed if it worked so well for over 200 episodes before. The real sucky part about the new kind of recaps however is their lenght. Back in the old way, the episode title often started after three and a half minutes (very rarely it went up to five minutes) which means that after that amount of time the opening and the recap was finished.
But ever since the recaps changed places they got extendet big time. Usually you should short thrown together scenes from the previous episode in a very fast manner to somehow keep a high pace and support the expection and anticipation for the viewer who wants to see the new episode. But nope, here the recaps usuall are not cut together scenes but sometimes scenes that run in the same manner as they were shown in the previous episode. It´s like rewatching the previous episode. Showing too much of the previous episode is like a waste of time for people who watch the show occationally (not like us die hard fans). Doesn´t matter what anybody thinks of Yu-Gi-Oh but compare a recap of that series to the current recaps of One Piece and you´ll see a big difference in pacing and size of the recap.
Next weird move was the "Brand New World" opening. First they introduce it and I don´t know for how many episodes it lasted but only after a short while it got taken off again. I´m not saying because it was my second favorite opening but really because it just is a totally weird move that makes you question the logic behind the decisions Toei makes.
Next is the current handling of the episodes. Now we´re halfwise back to what the anime was before. The episode recaps come now after the opening again. However the bad handling (meaning lenght and pacing) of it remains as they were when they were shown before the opening. Furthermore the anime now has an opening (doesn´t matter if it sucks or not) that´s twice as long as all the previous openings and lacks an ending eversince. Again very weird move.
Another weird move are the episodes 279-283 where the flashbacks of the protagonists got shown again. We practically rewatch what we´ve seen long ago in the series.
And then the next move those Oyabun specials. The first time it was a One Piece special (like the three other specials before). But this time episode 291 and 292 are episodes that have nothing to do with the story actually. What the smurf?
Actually everything I explained that far can be summarized under one banner. Toeis uncertainty. It´s like they want to make drastic changes without truly standing behind their decisions. They place the recap before the opening and then they change it back. They introduce a new opening and then they take it out. They re-air old episodes and re-use a special concept that only once was original and refreshing and make it part of the chronologic order. I´m not saying that Toei is really running out of ideas. But iwith the current development nobody can complain if somebody takes it like that.
It´s a real pitty actually because as I said Toei really did One Piece big justice back then. It´s not like they are not doing it anymore today but it just doesn´t appear that suvereign anymore. I mean they don´t even bother to tell their voice actors to use the laughs Oda wanted the characters to have. Neither Spandam´s (and Spandains) BUWAHAHAHA nor Jabra´s GYAHAHAHA ever appeared in the anime which is a pitty because hearing the unique laughs were also a great asset of the anime. I can only hope that these two laughs will be exceptions but with Toei as it is at the moment I wouldn´t count on it.