>>43853902>split is unneccessary since SE attacks will kill anyway lmaoKingler Return vs. Arcanine: 104-123 (28.9 - 34.2%)
Kingler Crabhammer vs. Arcanine: 149-176 (41.5 - 49%)
That's with Showdown's Gen II calculator. So yeah, Crabhammer just barely misses out on a 2HKO while Return is a 4HKO, which might seem to prove your point until one realises that with STAB and super effectiveness, Crabhammer deals 300% more damage than normal, but still only manages to deal 50% more damage than Return.
Like, I hear arguments all the time how pre-split encourages creativity and mixed sets, except both of those still apply post-split since you can give it moves of different types that benefits from its stat spread, or give it powerful special moves that its weaker stat can still perform with. Tauros with Fire Blast has been a thing for ages and remain unaffected by the split, whereas poor Kingler up there and Crawdaunt greatly benefitted from the split since now they can deal actual damage without being forced to setup first.
Let's also not forget that Gen I that started things out had the Special ATtack and Special Defense stat merged, meaning that few mons would have a sucky Special stat since that would mean sinking their special defenses as well. Part of the reason why mons like Gyarados managed just fine, but then got screwed after the special stat was split.
If one feels that some mons perform worse after the Phys/Special split, it usually boils down to their movepool, which congrats, you're in /rheg/, where we specifically set out to fix things we're displeased with.
>the mechanic is useless in casual playAgain, we're in /rheg/, we're at liberty to make the games challenging and equipping the players with the necessary tools to customize their team and make the most of their stats. If you consider babby mode to be the golden difficulty standard, then just go replay the canon games.