Quoted By:
I agree that Pokemon's battle system is flawed. I think the main issue is within how actions are handled:
In Chess: each turn has 1 action. You can respond to everything your opponent does.
In Pokemon: each turn has 2 actions. One for you and one for your opponent. You never get to respond to your opponent's move - you must instead predict it. As a result there will never be an objectively correct move - every battle is inherently determined by luck. Determined by whether your prediction of a switch-in is correct. Whether their prediction of your prediction is correct.
At best it's a mind-game of figuring out a pattern with your opponent's predictions. At worst it's trading advantages until one of you gets a critical hit. Or a burn from Scald. Or perhaps even a freeze from Ice Beam.