To a certain degree, this is true. Luffy sailed with the Straw Hat Pirates for a couple of months in the pre-timeskip, and after reuniting, once again, for a couple of months in the post-timeskip.

Eiichiro Oda's decision to keep the victory of Luffy's win over Crocodile in Alabasta Arc a secret has enraged the One Piece ...

larger-scale plots that the pre-time skip Straw Hats would be ill-equipped to handle. Although Luffy and the Straw Hats are probably strong and mature enough to take on most threats in the One ...

Oda hints at aging up Luffy, possibly showing him in his older years. A potential timeskip in One Piece post-Great War could reveal a more mature Luffy. Luffy's journey across the high seas has ...

Coincidentally, Luffy reunites with his full Straw Hat ... make sense is that it would serve as yet another inversion to pre-time-skip events, of which there have been plenty in recent arcs.