I agree with some of your points there that's for sure on Jimbei and Sanji, but have to respectfully disagree on that Jimbei kinda outclassed Sanji since yeah, we haven't seen much combat on Sanji as much, but Jimbei as well since the only fighting we saw him was against that cream guy (Sorry forgot his name) he one-shotted, brief moment at the Wedding Party against BM pirates and also while he did take on BM face to face, she was still weaken by hunger and not in her right mind, so wouldn't call that a big feat if she wasn't full power as the others could have probably damaged her if that's the case too.
We have no evidence that grants Sanji the accolades or feats that rival Jimbei.
- Sanji got defeated by Vergo, granted Sanji was already injured.
- He got 1-hit by Joker.
He's not done exceptionally against any formidable opponent while Jimbei:
- Fought with Ace for 5 days who Chinjao believes could have been Pirate King.
- Blew Big Mom away.
Sanji's resume is poor in comparison. These are not in anyway me putting down Sanji, these are just facts.
Sanji does have Haki and pretty sure it's confirm he can harden, but it's hard to see it when he wears "Black Leg" pants (No pun-intended) as why would Judge in his fight notice he use Haki if he didn't show it in some visible way. So it could be that Sanji hasn't shown more of his full power on someone yet just like Zoro feel like he hasn't use his full power maybe,
Sanji has Armament, but there's 2 categories of Armament:
- Invisible which most people can use.
- Hardening which is represented as black.
Sanji has no Hardening. Even in situations that it'd have been viable to use it, he didn't use it which implies he doesn't possess it. You can't attribute something that's visually discerned to a character that has yet to exhibit unless they're characters whom have been given the highest seats in the series, and therefore can be given reasonable benefit of the doubt.
It would be like trying to make a case that Nami has King's Haki despite the fact she's yet to use it, it's unlikely, however, does Mihawk have King's Haki? I can give him that benefit of the doubt and claim he probably does. For characters who do not belong to the quintessence of strength and power, we can't give them that privilege.
If there was a time for Sanji to prove he had Hardened Armament, it'd have been when his shin was cracked as Hardening would have further protected his legs; this could also have been done against Joker, but he never made use of it implying he simply doesn't possess it.
In fact, when people who possess Hardening go against blades, they always use Hardening as we see with Luffy, Joker and even Vergo against Tashigi
Jimbei has Hardening, we've seen him use it; Sanji doesn't. Even going further, Sanji blocked Judge's blade with his leg and we're told he used Armament (the Invisible variant which is the weaker form of Armament), and what happened to his leg? It throbbed in pain... had he used Hardening like Luffy, Law and Vergo, this wouldn't have happened.
One simply can't use something they do not possess. Either Sanji is a masochist who loves pain, or he simply doesn't have it.
Again, we can even go to his fight with Luffy.
He explicitly stated he used the entirety of his strength against Luffy, and the best he could do against a weakened Luffy was a missing teeth? Luffy wasn't even defending himself.
These are just plain facts. If Jimbei, or Cracker had free shots at Luffy? I'd be far more worried about Luffy losing more than a teeth. Sanji did nothing impressive despite fighting to the best of his abilities as he states.
Jimbei has Hardening, Sanji doesn't.
Saying Sanji is "Weak" (Not that I think you think that, but think he is weaker than Jimbei by a mile), would be very incorrect to say. It's just right now, they are focusing on escaping, not fighting everyone. It's compare to other certain arcs like Impel Down when they are only facing some people, not everyone so there won't be long one on one fights for this except few like Luffy's.
Though honestly would say they are evenly match, but leaning more on Sanji side on the speed since striking first could lead to heavy damage more from what I see it.
There's a scene that is taken out of context in regards to speed. Sanji can't move so fast that he can't be seen. If you look at the context, it was misdirection. Oven was focused on Pound and because of that, Sanji was able to sneak in an attack undetected and who were the people that didn't see him? Fodder and civilians. Sanji's speed is not significantly great. More so, reason Oven missed Sanji is while his attention was entirely on Pound, he's a 5m tall individual and he has some 3 times smaller than himself attacking him at a blind-spot... it would be like being focused on punching a peer, and then a toddler 3 times smaller than yourself kicked you from a blind-spot.
- You wouldn't expect it.
- Fact you're not expecting it would make you completely miss it.
Why Jimbei would lose out to Sanji in speed is questionable when he kept up with Gear 2nd Luffy. Nothing at all indicates Sanji has anything over JImbei.
I think the reality is Sanji is simply weaker than most of his fans expect him to be, that much is a fact and he's lost literally every fight he's had in the New World. He didn't even put up a good fight against Judge, but granted, they had Raid Suits on.
Jimbei outclasses Sanji, that's really the fact. Jimbei has the feats, he has the accolades against opponents, he has Hardening. There's nothing Sanji has that comes close to matching anything Jimbei has done.
Whether he's running away or not doesn't excuse how he's been beat by literally everyone. When he did fight, he did nothing spectacular.
This isn't bashing Sanji, it's literally taking the facts and accepting them for what they are, but it doesn't mean he will remain like this forever. In fact, it makes sense for Sanji to be relatively weak in the lead to this arc in order to sell his predicament as authentic. If he was stomping opponents left right and centre, people would question how Sanji could have been backed against the wall so easily, but this is the reality.
To remotely compare Sanji to guys like Luffy, Zoro and Jimbei at this point? Highly questionable. He has nothing remotely placing him at that tier.