Luffy is going to beat katakuri by himself now and that's the big bad and then have the last sweet commander fight Sanji. It would not only be character growth him choosing his crew over his principals of hitting a woman. Or even go a step father and have him beat smoothie without hitting her. Obviously extreme difficulty. Cause he isn't stronger than luffy.
Besides the fact that Sanji is nowhere near the power of a Sweet Commander, Sanji will never hit a woman. If you think that would mean growth you haven't paid attention to his arc.
The fact that Sanji doesn't hit women already is his growth because that is what saved him from being like his brothers. The fact that he was a 'failed' son allowed him to have his kindness. That is what Zeff his "real" dad taught him and that is why he turned out almost opposite from all his brothers.
If he starts hitting women, he would disrespect both the woman and Zeff. He would do what Judge expects him too. And it would ruin his backstory.
If Sanji would fight Oven or the genie guy in some weird twist, I would already be happy if he could finish and win against one of those. Just look at how much trouble normal Big Mom underlings gave everybody in this arc. The Big Mom pirates are almost undefeated with some exceptions and mostly suffered moral losses.
I'm pretty damn sure Smoothie will be saved for the next time Big Mom pops up and I also think Katakuri won't go down for that same reason. Can't lose your strongest underling when he still needs to make a comeback.
