The situation with Crocodile isn't comparable to this with Katakuri. Reason being that Crocodile never outclassed Luffy. His hang up with Crocodile was that he was unable to physically damage him. But he was never portrayed as being actually weaker. Meaning he wasn't portrayed as slower or less physically capable. In fact, during the second bout, Luffy was shown to be more than a match for Croc when the intangibility was removed from play.
With Katakuri, not only has Luffy been unable to physically hurt him, but he HAS been outclassed by him as well. This isn't Luffy having a particular hang-up he can't get past, this is Luffy fairing up against someone who is just plain superior to him AND he can't hurt him. The last time a situation like this happened was with the likes of Pacifista and Admirals pre-skip. So going by portrayal from previous events, this situation is actually similar to situations where Luffy only made it out alive because of help and escaping, not any bouts he actually won.