Every time someone wants to argue that the original 150 pokemon were no better than the new generations they use exeggcute as an argument.
Personally I found Exeggcute to be a very crucial addition to the cast. A plant psychic was a unique typeset at the time, and still stands out. It appears to be bird eggs but is infact a type of coconut or something which was a fun surprise. And it has an evolved for which actually looks worth evolving.

Nobody ever seems to bring up Poliwhirl, which is somewhat expected since it's a very forgettable pokemon, but that only adds to how much this evolution line seems to get worse with age.

First all, It looks like kindergarten version of Airman from Megamn 2. The fuck is his mouth supposed to be? His pre evolved form has a clear mouth. Maybe it's like one of those Butterflies that doesn't eat after it matures and slowly starves to death before mating.
And while it's pre evolved state also clearly resembles a poliwog or tadpole, it's evolved form is an old style mickey mouse extra with no distinguishable frog traits to it. In a lot of ways it looks like it evolves from a poliwog BACK into a frog egg.