A chill homie

FR I felt this way with Wano and Egghead too. So many new characters are being introduced, way too late in the story IMO, which then completely nerfs established characters backstories..e.g. Ace being (powerful enough to travel to and survive) in Wano makes no sense, but it was done to try and give the whole Tama storyline some weight.
Brook having even more of a tragic backstory that he's never even mentioned doesn't make any sense, but it was done to try and make the Shuri character compelling.
Luffy coming across Loki and taking an interest in him was forced to insert Loki into the story as quickly as possible, just like with Shirahoshi, Rebecca and other "princesses in distress".
I do miss when the storytelling seemed more organic, and less forced. It's very formulaic and repetitive, down to Luffy always being indisposed and then boom, appears just when all hope seems lost……..while the rest of the crew just kind of hang around doing sweet FA. takes me sad 'cus like you I have loved OP for years.

I may be a bit Oda glazer. But you're opinion is actually valid. I have some arcs before that I don't really care. Fishman Island is one tho. Dressrossa arc is one of my most DRAGGING arc, I even stop waiting the up-to-date release because I just want it to one shot read it and get it over (but I like the arc, it's just TOO LONG for me, I even skip some chapters lol). So yeah, you're valid for it

My love for Loki was so instant, it was like when I saw Ace or Law for the first time, so I’m happy whenever he’s in a chapter. The princess herself leaves me cold, but I care about Brooke so that’s a good bit for him. I think I would have cared more if she had turned out to be his daughter.

Also, I may be one of the few people not expecting much from Usopp, so to me there’s nothing surprising there. But then again he’s my least favorite straw hats so that might play a role there. The only time I stack OP is when they’re in flashbacks and it does always help appreciate the story more.

I feel like addressing some of your points:

1. Tama’s storyline didn’t need more weight. Luffy doesn’t need much to act for people and her being in her place in life and giving Luffy rice when he was starving would have been enough. Ace being in Wano doesn’t make sense only if you believe there’s only way to get to Wano. We know from Kid and Law that many routes bring to different islands. The question would be to know whether Ace was already part of WB’a crew when he got there or not. If anything, Ace being there established many key plot points, most of which pointing to the coming of Luffy liberating the island. Yamato was that connector as it’s also through Ace that she connected the dots between Gol D Roger and Luffy’s dream, leading us to have a deeper feel of Laughtale.

2. You can actually guess at Brooke having a deeper backstory from the way he introduced himself in Thriller Bark. During the Thriller Bark banquet, word from word he said "I have still not introduced myself properly…! Yes! My name is Brooke, just dead-and-bones Brooke. And I am a wanted man. Also known as “Humming Brooke” My bounty is 33,000 berri! Once the leader of an escort convoy… and afterwards, musician and swordsman, and eventually acting captain of the Rumba pirates.” That’s the manga chapter 489. But I don’t if that’s an official translation, but more specifically in the anime, episode 381 he says, during his intro, “A long time ago, I was the leader of a certain kingdom’s assault convoy.” I knew from the moment he said that shxt that there would be a lot more to him so this entire Elbaph situation just clicked for me and we all know Oda rarely (if ever) does happy backstories.

3. Luffy taking an interest in Loki is the most organic thing you could find. Everything about Loki and Luffy’s excitement to get to Elbaph along with the Will they have inherited was crystallized in this encounter. Luffy was just being himself when he wandered off and found him after sensing an ominous energy from below the bridge. I’m actually puzzled by this take. I could be wrong but I think, from everything you’re saying, that you would probably rather sit with new characters for more than one arc like we did with Vivi and Kin’emon.

I mean there’s no requirement for you to like how storylines unfold or to even like the arcs most people enjoy, but if there’s one thing that hasn’t changed since the beginning of One Piece, it’s Luffy being indisposed until it’s time for him to save the day. That has never changed. I learned to get over it by the time we were at Water 7. Now it just gets a sigh from me.

If I could upvote you (@LaNansha), I would.

I get that I guess that’s part of the reason why I’m not connecting with this arc because I didn’t have that connection with Loki and so I’m looking for reasons to like him, but I just can’t for some reason connect to him and same with the princess, I feel like they just added Brooke to make us care about her character and it just makes me feel a little over it in a way, it’s completely valid to like those things, but I guess what I was expressing is that the very reasons you like this are the very reasons I can’t personally connect. I’m really happy other people are enjoying this arc and I wish I could tell you why I’m not connected to Loki because everything about his backstory should make me feel sorry for him but for some reason, I just can’t connect. Maybe there’s just too many characters at this point in the story and I’m a little emotionally overwhelmed to care about new one’s like I said I’ve been following a story for well over a decade at this point and it makes me feel so sad because I love this so so so so so much

This arc kind of relies upon the fact that you connect with Loki immediately like you did so for me and I’m guessing a couple of other people who upvoted this, if you don’t connect immediately with Loki like you said it’s just……

I mean it is more enjoyable when you appreciate the characters for sure. Oden is one of my favorite characters in One Piece but I couldnt care less when he was first introduced. I just skimmed through the whole flashback in the manga while I waited for the anime to catch up. Then when it was all caught up, I watched it and I suddenly had such a deeper appreciation for his character that on my second read/watch of the arc, he turned out to be one of my favorite OP characters. Sometimes, letting it sit to soak up in one go is what you need