Yeah, when you read Oda's thoughts on how to make something impressive or how to express power it's very clear that he is the polar opposite of Toriyama.
Which is just flipping awesome when you realize how much he LOVES Toriyama but wants to forge his own path…which he does...repeatedly...without monkeying Toriyama's work. Toriyama's theory is that smaller means power is more condensed and therefore more volatile whereas Oda believes the power to move a reader comes through expression of exaggerated size, motion and sound.
I never really considered that before, which is strange considering how my biggest passion is for Dragon Ball. Oda really is all about spectacle when it comes to power; the toughest forces are just these monstrously huge enemies that seem to tower over and engulf everyone in their paths. That's an absolutely wonderful contrast to Toriyama who made one of the strongest characters in the series… a malnourished-looking hairless cat. They're both wonderful in their own ways.
I think this observation really struck a chord with me because I could never really work out why I ended up persevering with One Piece when the concept of Naruto appealed to me more. And you're right, it's that Oda actively goes out of his way to forge his own path, whereas Kishimoto takes Toriyama's influence into overly familiar territory. While I appreciated having a Toad Sage to match a Turtle Sage, once the similarities began to grow and grow, I found myself quite bored -- I knew where the stories were going and I didn't find have the drive to continue much further into Shippuden. That's not really a serious knock against the series, but as someone who knows Toriyama's work inside and out, it's hard to deal with anything that sticks too close to it. Not all that interested in Super Saiyan Fox Tail.
But anyway, that's about it. Don't really have a lot to say, I just thought that was an interesting thing to point out. Possibly obvious to a lot of people, but I only caught up with One Piece very recently, so I'm still in the learning phase.