@Nubtro:
This will surely sound weird, but from his first introduction, he seemed misplaced. Like, unplanned. As if Oda figured out 2 things mid-arc:
One, Luffy can´t face Kaidou yet, he needs another stepping stone after Cracker but BM is way too strong.
Two, Luffy has to do something for exactly X hours for the super important cake baking plot to happen (which was mostly off-paneled so far LOL), where he can´t directly face BM, who is too strong, and to give others some time to shine.
Hence, OP I´m a badass Kata was created on the spot and has been given a lot more focus than any other BM pirate (with stuff like Flampe appearing out of nowhere), to give the impression he is super important to the point BM pirates are turning into Kata pirates.
So that´s all there is to it. I just feel like Kata is forced coolness / plot convenience and additionally, I don´t like to see my favorite character as a punching bag 95% of the fight. I kind of lost my usual "rooting for Luffy to win" mood somewhere in the middle of the fight and now I´m like please let this be over with already, somehow. As for me, Luffy´s pinnacle of this arc was proclaiming he´d stand there and wait for Sanji, and I believed in him he could do it, but then he got owned and it feels like the getting owned part is still continuing.
But yeah, Katakuri definitely gets more bonus points in my book this chapter than probably from all of his showings so far. He really felt like a main character today, fighting a weirdo (Luffy).
Liking / disliking characters is always the most subjective thing so please don´t be mad at me that I´m not melting when I see him.
I won't say Katakuri was forced, ever since TB, we knew the SHs will not fight BM, I was expecting BM vivre card to be more valuable than what we got but I knew they won't go head to head with BM like other villains. Oda wanted to show what it means to take on a Yonkou crew, he wanted to show the gulf between a Yonkou and the routine Shichibukai takedowns. The beat up was totally necessary. Luffy needs to understand the task in front of him in regards to Wano, Luffy needs to understand the quality of fighters from this point, looking back at his training, you could see Luffy never took CoO seriously. Now Luffy saw how invincible a fighter can be with a very high CoO level, I'm sure he will want to reach that level. Luffy CoA that make his own look like candle. Luffy now understands the task ahead, he's drained, he's tired and hungry but he doesn't want to lose.
Think of this moment like when the crew met an Admiral for the first time, Luffy come to grasp of the sees ahead and he developed G2 & G3. Now Luffy has realize what he need to push further, he needs badass CoO, monster CoA and he need to find a way to awaken his DF if he's to become the PK. Katakuri's coolness is necessary because he wants Luffy to get beat up badly. If Katakuri wasn't cool, loads of fans will have dislike for the series.
Hang in there, this is a setting stone for Luffy.