Like the gang-ridden West Blue and... the weakest, backwater East Blue, the South Blue had its own distinctive feature: all kinds of mechanical creations were hugely popular here.
Besides Kid, the future Supernova who would eat the Magnet-Magnet Fruit and build all sorts of mechanical beasts and electromagnetic cannons, Franky, who would eventually join the Straw Hat Pirates, actually came from the South Blue too.
And besides those two, the South Blue had plenty of other craftsmen skilled at making all kinds of machinery.
But strangely enough... the weapons here were hardly any better than those in the West Blue, and were even a little worse. Flintlocks were still the mainstay, though many mechanically skilled pirates, bounty hunters, and the like modified their weapons. They might still look like outdated flintlocks, but they were far more powerful than something like a Chicago Typewriter.
Everyday amenities also showed signs of all kinds of modifications, but the common people of the South Blue were just as poor as those elsewhere. As a result, most of these mechanical facilities were cobbled together from scrap metal, giving them quite a wasteland-punk feel.
Of course, where there was poverty, there were naturally affluent areas too. Yet most of those wealthy royals and nobles looked down on the mechanical technology developed by the common people, making them no different from those in other seas.
The few wealthy people who did use mechanical technology only used it for their own enjoyment.
Furthermore, although mechanical technology was highly developed here, it was rarely applied to shipbuilding. Even pirates with mechanical skills of their own seemed not to have given much thought to modifying their ships, only their weapons... and themselves.
That was another reason Xie Wen thought this place had a wasteland-punk feel. Cyborgs were far from uncommon