Let's think about this. Now I've looked at about 10 subbed episodes from near the start of the series (which seem to be longer by about a minute than the newer episodes), and it seems that including "We Are", the ones with the first ending are about 22:53 long and the ones with the second ending are about 22:56 (neither values including the ending). I make the 4kids opening 1:30 and We Are 1:50. So lets say that an edited episode with no cuts is about 22:35.
Now see, something like that would fit fine in a half hour slot for British TV. E.g. Assuming the slot is exactly 30 minutes; Show starts at 10:00. 3:42.5 minutes of ad breaks in the middle, and 3:42.5 minutes of at the end (end being after the entire show has finished). Then you're cleanly brought up to 10:30 for the next show. Hell we could probably air the full uncut 24 minute episodes with openings and endings, but we're talking 4kids so let's be more realistic.
But no, apparantly in the US you have at least three ad breaks (including the one at the end). Apparantly sometimes you have four or five, but it's known there's at least 3. Now unless all of these ad breaks are considerably short, you've just made cuts a requirement. "Why are you moaning, you're not living in the US…" you might say. Well I'm sorry, this may not annoy a lot of people, but I've always hated the screen fading out and fading in again, and as normal with 4kids shows repeating some content with a different script.
EDIT: Wait a sec, just realised I downloaded episode 35. 19:47, from the opening through the next piece of One Piece sans ads. That's poor, cutting a 22:35 minute episode down to THAT.
