Kizaru was plot nerfed in Saboday, otherwise he would’ve neg diffed Rayleigh with a light speed kick

As someone who knows more about One Piece than the author, I can confidently say that Oda nerfed Kizaru to keep him from killing Ray and capturing the rest of the strawhats.

Kizaru wasn’t allowed to use his clones, lasers, or light speed kicks against Rayleigh because he would have ended the manga right there.

Clearly Oda is just a terrible writer because he doesn’t cater the story to how I believe it should go. If I were writing One Piece, every character would just spam their strongest attack the millisecond they get into a fight.