In season 3...
Luffy losing to crocodile will have no impact. Let's talk about contrast, shall we? Contrast causes your hand to feel extra cold after being in something warm. It also causes warm baths to feel extra nice in cold weather. Contrast is good.
Luffy, in the first few arcs of the manga, is very strong. Not overpowered, but he can definitely hold his own. He doesn't dominate, but he never feels like he's constantly on the backfoot and needs help.
That makes the contrast of his loss to crocodile, his first major loss, so much better and sweeter in the manga. It adds so much extra shock, Luffy felt like a protagonist, like an unstoppable force, until now, and suddenly we're reminded, Luffy is still a rookie.
This moment builds up crocodile SO well, it absolutely makes him so intimidating as the first one to defeat our protagonist, twice at that, and makes Luffy beating him so much more cathartic. It does double duty, it makes crocodile a memorable villain, everyone remembers the guy who created contrast, who delivered something unique for the first time in the show. It's what makes knights of Cerberus so memorable, and while I wouldn't say crocodile is a knight of Cerberus, him beating Luffy achieves a similar function, and CP9 further amplified and pushes that into new realms of contrast, threat, and catharsis. Every good villain in one piece does this, after arcs of beating big mom's commanders, Kaido one shots Luffy, after arcs of beating up the new world, Doflamingo let's us remember why it's so difficult in the first place.
Live action Luffy will not get that same contrast. And that'll hurt crocodile as a villain, the catharsis of the final battle, and while I'm at it, changing crocodile's dream will make him worse from a narrative standpoint, as it'll make him more generic, villain wants same thing protagonist wants is very common compared to villain was actively broken while trying to achieve protagonists dream so now mocks the dream, and it'll make his backstory, if they ever do reach that far, hit less hard because his dreams weren't broken and Luffy didn't need to relight them. Of course this final point likely won't be a factor as it'll be canceled before that point, but it's still a point on the board, we won't see how the grand line breaks people. It'll make his rookie speech, a direct tieback to his own past, t Luffy hit softer. It'll make him and Luffy have less contrast.
And it'll hurt the show overall. Thanks for coming to my Ted talk. There mods, vague title, spoiler, and tag