Reading all this replies regarding Robin as an asset made me realize I always expected Luffy to make the Final Sprint to the Pirate King Throne something public. A free for all. A bit like Stampede's chase if you will. Robin would be essential to uncover what is needed to make Laftel a reachable place, but by doing so Luffy would allow anyone to go there. That's what I was/am (a bit?) expecting, lol.
And, well, about the whole conversation this chapter lead to...Vegapunk and Robin seems to be in exchange of information. Up until now, we haven't seem Vegapunk "giving" some "unearned" info to Robin or something like that. The mystery of the Void Century is still all for Robin to uncover. The new info, as I recall, is that the Ancient Kingdom (AK) was further advanced than the current time technology - which Robin doesn't seem phazed (as opposed to Franky and Sanji) in the least. Next chapters will tell, but I don't see anything jarring going on here.
About the Remaining Books, I think Oda forced his hand a LOT. There's not much he can do now to cover for it, unless Vegapunk is later being assigned as recognition force sent to Ohara to oversee the books and he lied about them, idk. It just feels kinda blergh. Saul being alive has blergh vibes as well, I really hope Oda has a great scene with him to make it worth reverting his impactful death.
The reveals up until now seems a bit like the ones we got in Zou. And while they were Big News, they mostly set the rules of what the New World Saga would be about and were a bit flat - in part because they were pushing Wano to be the next mystery spot. But there was a bit of effort there, we had the whole Raizo liberation, the first Red Poneglyph, big spreads and all. Due to the lack of visual telling effort, I don't think that what we got until now is supposed to be taken as Big Discoveries yet. The juicy stuff is yet to come, and maybe DF Lore won't be the main plate.
Shift