Other statements Oda made characters say/express:
Yup lets ignore the fact that it was Oda who made his characters say those statements and also forgot the fact that no character other than Zoro in crew was considered to be VC by anyone. If he doesn't have any intention of looking at him as VC then why even bother himself by making his characters state something like it? Why didn't any character said same shit about Sanji? Why not Usopp Or Nami?
The thing is that Oda choose Zoro out of all people in crew to replace Luffy which means that he thinks of his as someone who's next to only Luffy in the crew. Luffy always puts his life on the line to save crew not only because he cares enough to give up his life ,It's also because it's Luffy's responsibility to save crew from enemy. Zoro was the one to play that role when Luffy was out of game which implies that crews responsibility stands on Zoro's shoulders when Luffy's not present implying that his position is next to Luffy.
Nami takes charge just like Zoro so it ain't a big deal.
Sanji did something similar to Zoro so it's not a VC thing.
Usopp did this similar to Zoro, Brook did that similar to Zoro so Zoro ain't any different.
You can use as many excuses as you can but one thing that failed to do is that naming a character in the crew who has all those qualities in one person. Surely each character carries one quality of Zoro but what makes him special is that he has all of them in one person which is why he's more of a VC than any other crew member.
If you're talking about holding enemy back so that his crew members can be saved then Zoro already did it at Arlong park.
1. "My will alone created this world."-Enel
2. "I'm gonna send all of them to Hell with you."-Rob Lucci
3. "I'm the world's strongest man."-Don Krieg
4. "Chopper is nothing more than the pet of the Strawhat crew"-World Government
5. "I can defeat Fujitora, thousands of Marines, Zoro, Luffy and Law."-Pica
6. "Law is dead."-Doflamingo
Now, how many of these statements do you agree with simply because Oda wrote the character saying it?
Right, the only times a vice-captain has been brought up in the Strawhat crew has been by Urouge, who is going based off of rumors, what the WG reports and seeing one Strawhat one time, and Bartolomeo, who said that's that something he does personally, and not some established fact or opinion of the world or anyone else. Bartolomeo's statement is essentially the same as "No one else says this, but I do." The fact that these are the only two instances of the crew having a first mate, never mind it being Zoro, but the concept of a first mate period, hurts the concept even more because both are unreliable.
Every single member of the crew puts their lives and well-being on the line in order to help the crew. Zoro fighting Daz Bones, Nami fighting Khalifa, Sanji fighting Jabra, Chopper fighting Kumodori(spelling), it's all for the sake of the crew's survival and the crew coming out victorious. Once again, Zoro is not special for that, anyone of them would have done it. Right before that, every member and even complete strangers yelled out "Hell no!" and defied Kuma for Luffy's sake, knowing full and well Kuma would attempt to kill them as a result.