Yeah, this was essentially Breed 2.0 in turns of set-up. Another Ueda episode aired only a few weeks ago, so it's not surprising that this one suffered (plus, well it is Ueda we're talking about here). There were a number of opportunities where they could've slipped in some amusing background gags but didn't. Shame.
I think that Bill's rather normal design makes him ironically stand out a little more since he's the first main villain since, I dunno…Lucci that actually looks like a normal person and not some ten-foot-tall mutant freakshow. Otherwise, yeah, not much to be seen here. I at least hope that his power of friendship shilling is genuine rather than him becoming a garden-variety douchebag by the time of the finale. Desire was obviously the stand-out of the new characters, largely since One Piece hasn't feature the female delinquent stereotype before.