>>44023185>the movepools are charming in their unviable ways and remind how pokemon is not competetiveThis was actually fun to play around. In Gen 1, there was a line of NPC dialogue that explicitly stated that the single-use TMs were a means of teaching Pokemon GOOD moves to patch up what are normally shallow movepools. It added another level of player choice since not all Pokemon are blessed with learning your staple moves like Psychic, Thunderbolt, or Earthquake via level up. Things like: "Should I train a Nidoking and teach it Earthquake or should I train a Golem that learns Earthquake naturally so I can instead give Earthquake to a Pokemon that needs it for coverage?"
The one thing I don't agree with however, is the overall lack of STAB. Even in Gen 2, there is absolutely no reason for Voltorb/Electrode to not at least learn Thundershock or Spark, for example. If you want it to learn Thunderbolt, you're gonna have to teach it via TM in Gen 1 or move tutor in Gen 2, but if not, you'll have to settle for a weaker STAB option. Each Pokemon should've at least have access to one weak STAB option.