>>37461352Of all the reasons to defend dexbloat, you want to die on a hill of early region shitmons? Jesus Christ.
Pidgey is like Starly is like Fletchling, and Sentret is like Rattata is like Gumshoos, in that they're all redundant early region shitmons who most people will box after the first or second gym.
I know Pidgey has a Mega, I know Starly hits like a truck, I know Pidove's final evos have gender differences that you don't need a microscope to see, and I know Fletchling becomes Fire/Flying and had a broken hidden ability. The birds do sometimes have their rewards if you stick with them, but the Rattata archetypes are all just HM slaves with varying levels of uselessness. Though I will admit Bunnelby & Bidoof had their niches too.
We all understand the mechanical importance of having a weak enemy to fight at level 5, but when each new batch of weaklings are mechanically similar to the ones from the previous gen, it makes the series feel monotonous.
Normal types are supposed to be versatile, but the birds & rats rarely have anything outside of the usual STAB and archetypal moves. Can you really blame someone for thinking Pidgey, Starly, etc play the same when they all start out with Peck/Gust, Sand Attack, and Growl?
Also how can you argue in good faith that it's for variety when more often than not you only have access to one generation's set of rat/bird archetypes until postgame?
