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You bring up an interesting point. All pokemon that acquired a pre-evo one way or another are now understood to have that as their base form now. This now makes calling Pikachu a base state for any reason pointless. You would otherwise end up in debates about what is or isn't a "baby" pokemon. Honestly, it doesn't matter what it's called, as long as the form is understood to be where the evo line begins. The others are simply a reference to where the evo state belongs in the line. Either you refer to it as # evo from the base state, or # state in the line. I honestly think it's up to your preference on that. To think that like Digimon, the evo states have a concrete label is silly. None of the evos are made equal. There are pokes that evo once that are every bit as powerful or even more so than pokes that evo twice. As for how the evo state relates to if it can breed or not: I might agree with the idea that the smallest state should not be able to breed due to not being developed enough, but considering the above, it becomes an inconsistency in the system, and thus just as arbitrary as excluding Nidorina and Nidoqueen. No matter how you propose to fix this, it won't happen, though. This is why I feel keeping the system as it is in regards to the dex is holding us back.
