4kids just wasn't equipped to handle a serious show. A full on comedy? Yea. Something like Yu-gi-oh, where the entire premise was silly? Sure. One Piece? Nah son.
One Piece happened during a time where they were already going down the crapper with how they were handling shit anyway.
The quality of their kid friendly dubs didn't stay the same. It really did get a whole lot worse as they kept getting more arrogant.
I probably followed their shit a little too long in hindsight. Stuff like how they refused to ever let there be a quiet moment in a show because the background music needed to always blare and play some shit was something that you never stop noticing once it's pointed out to you. Seeing the Japanese versions of One Piece, Sonic X, and even Yu-Gi-Oh! gave off a different feeling of ambience because of it. It's not just because those shows had actual soundtracks in their original versions rather than the generic 4kids funhouse music they shuffled through all their same shows but it was also due to the fact that sometimes the soundtrack knew when not to be there at all.
I could try my hand at a video series about how amazing the downward spiral for them truly was. Especially on a business end. Good God.
They lost the rights to Pokemon because of some sleazy business fuckery and had a lot of their own original content end soon after. Then One Piece was taken from them because apparently Toei has "some" integrity and didn't like the way they handled the show. But that left them in a tight spot.
Instead of revamping and trying to acquire and market new things that would become more popular, they instead resorted to the brilliant strategy of replaying Sonic X and whatever new Yu-Gi-Oh! series was out at the time, over and over and over again.
I remember this too. Like, Sonic X had long finished (and I guess ordering a fourth season didn't work out) but it was their most popular show so they just aired like an hour or sometimes two hours of it every Saturday along with the latest Yu-Gi-Oh! show. Definitely gave Fox some sort of clue which explains how they eventually ended up on the CW.
Their original stuff wasn't as popular but it wasn't going to get a chance to breathe with
that being their strategy now. You can't have your Saturday morning block be dominated by just two shows like that. They're short enough as it is.