>>18366430This. People always use the argument "X starter is good/bad against so-and-so's gym". Ignoring the fact that the game is about catching and building a functional team, not just power-leveling your starter.
As far as starters go, I judge them based on a couple of criteria. Mostly their movepool and general usefulness during a playthrough, and chiefly whether or not they can be easily replaced by a wild Pokemon in the same region that does their job, only better. Going by this, Bulbasaur is decent and a good choice. Of course, it's unfortunate that Squirtle gets the shaft because there always were and continue to be so many good water type Pokemon. Charizard was good because it could fill a role as a flyer if you didn't want to use Pidgeot/Fearow, but its movepool sucks. Doesn't learn any decent fire moves until its final stage which makes it useless for half the game, and in the end I think I prefer Arcanine as a fire type.
