Oh, I wasn't refering to you; some people stated it was "rushed".
But I agree with you in that these chapters are needed, and we can't expect twists and stuff from this kind of chapters. I think in what it tried to accomplish, to give exposition to the bad guys, it was good. We may not like some of these, or like them all, or hate them all, but that enters the "personal taste" area, not the "it's really badly written" area.
On the "rushed" thing; "cramped" is an adjective I can attribute, but not only to this chapter, but like 85% of OP's chapters. ODa puts a lot of stuff in every chapter. It can get a little overwhelming, what with the crowded panels and all, but I kinda like it. It gives value to the chapter: Oda puts many stuff with the 17-19 pages he's got to work with.
I'm getting tired of bringing in Bleach in a discusion, but in this case it's usefull; in Bleach, we get pages with 2-3 giant panels, 1 bubble that says something like "It's here. We must go", and all that happens is that someone stands up. Or points at something. Or looks at something. The chapter will fly by in 2 minutes, but you won't be getting much from it.
I prefer Oda's way, but I guess there is a middle ground somewhere.
Totally agree with this.