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Yeah, I think Oda made it pretty clear that Ace's strength didn't just come from his fruit. Recall that Luffy said that he could never beat Ace in a fight when they grew up together in East Blue (and Luffy already had HIS DF power when the two of them first met). Plus, Van Auger commented during during Ace's fight with Blackbeard that he already had superb fighting abilities outside of his DF power. Still, the fact that Ace got himself smacked around by Whitebeard (and later on, Blackbeard) definitely proves that he's still pretty wet behind the ears......
Oh, and Ace's crew did end up joining with Whitebeard after all. It's confirmed in the flashback by Thatch (the 4th commander, remember). I wonder if any of THOSE guys ended up becoming a commander themselves....?
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