Team Rocket were the mafia;
team Aqua were pirates and Magma mad scientists;
Team Galactic were cultists;
Team Plasma were basically Pokemon-PETA,
Team Flare were when it came down to it nazis
they all had grand schemes and plans (e. drying up the ocean for bigger landmass; genocide...)

and now we have Team Skull which are your typical neighbourhood gangsters

I feel like they`re just less of a threat , maybe even insignificant on a larger scale than all the other evil teams