Alright so, bear with me for a second here. One of the most common complaints that you'll often hear when it comes to AFO is that he grossly misuses what, for all intents and purposes, should have been the single strongest quirk in the series. Generally the reasoning here is something along the lines of: while AFO is a quirk that is capable of stealing and distributing other quirks freely at will, theoretically giving the villain of the same name near infinite possibilities for what he might choose to do with it, he largely opts instead to simply take straightforward abilities, the majority of which are blasts, barriers, and power-up types. 

When making this critique, the most prominent examples people often give of AFO foolishly ignoring powerful quirks simply for them being difficult to utilize are Best Jeanist's quirk and Overhaul, and it's easy to see why. While both quirks might be rather time consuming to get the hang of (Overhaul in particular), each are incredibly powerful and versatile in their own right in the right hands, making it easy to question AFO's judgment on the matter; however, when viewing things from AFO's perspective, from the point of view of someone who has had this power for as long as he has, I think that it's actually fairly understandable why he operates in the way that he does, and, in fact, I think he actually largely has the correct approach when it comes to using his power.

Think about it this way, as far as AFO is concerned, essentially no quirk is "special." AFO can have any quirk in the world, more or less, whenever wants in whatever way he chooses to obtain it (OFA and, to a lesser extent, New Order being exceptions for obvious reasons). Given that context, why waste time methodically learning how to maximize the use of every quirk with high potential that you come across? When, instead, you could simply achieve the same results by searching for quirks with similar levels of utility or offensive output without the need to for any sort of training or additional effort. 

Why WOULD a villain at AFO's level, with his ability, take Best Jeanist's quirk? Sure, you might be able to use it to effectively restrain or defeat large numbers of weaker heroes at once, but would it really be more effective in doing so than aircannon in any meaningful capacity? AFO uses a SINGLE blast to defeat four heroes at once, two of whom were in the top 10 with one being top 5. The man really DOESN'T have any need to spend a lengthy amount of time learning how to manipulate fibers when he can do that in a single attack with the same straightforward quirks people criticize him for taking. Furthermore, when it comes any heroes who actually MIGHT be a threat for him (namely All Might, Deku, Star and Stripe, to a lesser extent Endeavor, etc.), having Best Jeanist's quirk achieves next to nothing, because it's very unlikely to meaningfully impact anyone at that level of power.

Overhaul is a bit of a different case, of course, but I think the principle still applies here. AFO already has plenty of quirks at his disposal for taking care of weaker enemies, so the only reason for him to spend the time and effort required to master Overhaul would be if he felt it would aide him in defeating those who actually ARE threats to him, in which case I do think that I can see where he's coming from. We see Chisaki lose to Deku using OFA at 100 percent, and he's spent his LIFE mastering how to use the quirk, so I think you can see why AFO might at look at that result and deem mastering the quirk to be waste of his time, rather than stealing some sort of gigantification quirk and 4 strength enhancement types to get a similar result instead. The best argument in Overhaul's favor is its ability to heal the user and allow them to keep fighting, which could actually be beneficial to AFO, especially given the state of his body throughout much of the series, but AFO probably just doesn't see the point when he has Garaki to patch him up if necessary and, by the point in time that we see him in the story, is actively working on creating a new body naturally as strong as prime All Might.

AFO literally has every option available to him when it comes to picking his super powers, so of course he's going to min max his time commitment by looking for abilities that require the lowest effort for the highest yield. Why take a fiber manipulation quirk, best used for restraining or killing large numbers of weaker individuals, when instead he can fire a huge blast capable of killing that same number of heroes with zero relative effort? Why take Overhaul, a quirk capable of manipulating the environment, healing oneself, and strengthening one's own body, but with the requirement of having a precise understanding of whatever it is that youre deconstructing and reforming, when instead you could take 4 or 5 individually weaker, but much easier to use, quirks for the same result? Why take Mirio's quirk, one that makes you intangible, but once again requires immense skill and effort to master, when instead you could steal a speed enhancement quirk and dodge all of those same attacks just easily without putting in the time necessary to master a complex ability? If the quirk isn't easy to use in conjuction with his other abilities, one that he can quickly use in the heat of battle, and or one that will help him in beating a OFA user in a way that none of his existing abilities address, then he doesn't want it, and I think most people would actually come to the same conclusion in his shoes. What do you guys think, though? Would love to hear any further thoughts that anyone might have on this.





















TLDR: when you have every quirk in the world to choose from (practically), and have no ambition other than asserting your will over the rest of the world and defeating the strongest heroes who might try to oppose you, it makes perfect sense to prioritize abilities that are the easiest to use while providing the greatest amount of power for whatever amount of effort you're willing to put into learning them (i.e the destructive output of the quirk combo he uses in kamino is greater than almost every feat that Endeavor has within the series, so why take Endeavor's quirk, which presumably is quite difficult to use, when you can get the same results or better by combining other, simpler abilities)

Hot Take: AFO actually WAS using his quirk correctly