@FolhaS:
Well, can't argue with your last point. You clearly have those details more present in your mind than me. Guess my head-cannon doesn't hold up that well
I could keep going, commenting on how it's not the gorosei that place the bounties but a different department so even if the gorosei talk about Luffy in a way they don't talk about the other supernovas, it's not a public or internal affair, but that's not really that important overall. We'll just end up on the point we agreed in the begining, bounties are more hype than anything.
Tbh, I feel we're missing big numbers to fully analyze this: how many pirates/criminals actually get a specific bounty (a poster with a name a photo), how many of those bounties are above 10 million, above 100 million, etc.
As for the shichibukai they're not meant to balance the world against the yonko by themselves. It's the shichibukai and the marines, not matter how they talk about it. When WB attacked marineford they called in all of them and it was a fair fight. And they operated mostly in Paradise, not really setting foot in the New World, that's yonko land, that's the untouchable, unconquered territory. The shichibukai are a publicity stunt more than anything.
As for their bounties, well, real-world explanation I guess Oda was just making some numbers as he went along without considering the scalling.
But we can always try to justify some of it. We can imagine Crocodile made his 81 million bounty on Paradise, went to the New World, faced Whitebeard and survived so the WG just offered him a job instead of updating his bounty.
I am not keen to point out negative things but i try not to overlook and make mental gymnastics to justify them either.
And i would argue whether that department is actually following a different agenda than the Gorosei or are differently woven than them with different policies, or even ideologies, but of course in a huge organization everything is possible.
Yeah but we can compare those that we do have and that are supposed to make sense within the confines presented by Oda himself.
It´s the same thing. The Marines did not have enough strong fighters to balance the Yonkou fighters, hence they needed the Shichibukai, which mostly play in the strength area of the commanders, except Mihawk who can match a Yonkou by himself.
Marinefored was never a fair fight, the Marines´intention, except the Absolute Justice boys, was to only ensure Ace´s execution and minimize their losses, it was never about defeating the WB Pirates or even WB himself, it would certainly be easier if they did, but that was not the aim.
Hence the formation, or 5 out of the six powerhouses of the World Government barely doing anything, Mihawk is an equal to Shanks, who does not lack compared to the other Yonkou, Garp was an equal to Roger and by extension Whitebeard. Kizaru and Aokiji barely took their hands out of their pockets (and Aokiji can match Akainu equally) and Akainu matched Whitebeard equally, you can even argue he was superior in instances and pretty much dealt the dealing blow, and right after cornered the entire Whitebeard Pirates plus allies by himself.
The balance is the Yonkou (which means 4 Emperor, meaning them an a theoretical alliance) vs Marines + Shichibukai, and the latter are a significant part of it.
Which brings us to our initial point, hype and escalation is what bounties really are about, not consistency.
Crocodile was a big player for years, even in the New World, and then became Shichibukai, and then faced Whitebeard.
He made waves in the New World, was famous for his strength adn so on, and then became Shichi.
Compare that to Bartolomeo for example, a rookie, who had a bounty of 150 million in his rookie year, but is still lacking in both threat level and strength compared to Crocodile.
Or even worse, Caribou, another rookie, who has almost three times the amount of Crocodile had.
So yeah, making up numbers without paying them too much attention sounds right.