Design wise? Nothing. Half of them are literally Gen 1 Pokémon that couldn't fit into the original games, so if you're going to somehow bitch about a non-existent quality drop, then fuck off. Some of the best Pokémon (Tyranitar, Espeon, Mareep, Wooper) are from Gen 2.
In-Game usability wise? It's... Debatable. See, Gen 2 was not even considered a Generation by Game Freak. People meme about Gen 6.5, but Gold & Silver was literally Gen 1.5, which is why there was so many Kanto Pokémon prevalent still.
MOST of the Gen 2 Pokémon DO still show up before the Elite 4. The best ones are even pretty early on too. If you skipped Wooper and Mareep, then it's on you, pal.
You also have to remember that G/S had a huge Post-Game, an entire region (>inb4 "b-but Kanto was too empty!") with the most content of any Pokémon game until Emerald. So when you get to Kanto and still find new Pokémon? That's because you have 8 more Badges, and a final boss to get through, and they fully expected players to consider switching out Pokémon for new ones.
This was an honest mistake on the Developers part, because honestly, most people are not going to switch out their Team Members by this point, especially when wild Pokémon are so low leveled.
>>27036595I'm fairly sure Larvitar, Sneasel and Misdreavus can be found before E4, depending on the version, but I may be wrong. I seem to remember Sneasel in Ice Path?
