If Cell had absorbed Piccolo?
After Imperfect Cell beat Piccolo he thought of absorbing him, but decided against it as he felt he had enough of his cells. This however was foolish because if he had absorbed Piccolo he might've gotten the boost to completely outperform 16. If Cell had absorbed Piccolo, would his perfect form been even stronger, and more of a chance against SSJ2 Gohan?
While the power of the androids was static, Cell's was dynamic. That is one of the traits that set him apart. So logically, the stronger he would have been in his Imperfect form, the stronger he would have become in his Semi-Perfect and Perfect forms.
However, one of Cell's many flaws is that he was brainwashed by Gero into thinking that absorbing #17 and #18 would make him, unequivocally, the most powerful being in existence... So absorbing more energy from Piccolo, when the androids were sitting there ripe for the picking, would have been a complete waste of time as far as he was concerned. Attaining his Perfect form was Cell's only goal.
Galan's right. Hell, in theory, Imperfect Cell could have just gone around absorbing the entirety of the Z-fighters, and then focused on the androids. Since he would have been a lot stronger than them in the first place, if he had absorbed Piccolo. It would have allowed him to overpower #16, and then absorb anyone else around him, before he absorbed #17, and got pwned by Vegeta. Then he would have been even stronger in his perfect form. Not that it would have mattered though, as Gohan would have still pwned him.
Originally posted by BasedYeah, but that was when Imperfect Cell was still < #17. Once he had attained enough power to defeat/absorb #17, collecting additional energy became superfluous as far as he was concerned...
Well Cell initially did try and absorb Piccolo, he got out of the way just in time.