>>40287878Lets look at most the mons that lost the ability to use Fire/Ice/Electric moves in the transition due to Elemental Punch loss. Keep in mind for a whopping 5 BP loss, they could still use one of these with Hidden Power.
>GengarGot both STABs and Focus Blast. significantly better
>AlakazamGot Focus Blast, Signal Beam, and Shadow Ball, was actually OU for most the Gen. slightly better
>Gardevoir (Has Thunderbolt)Got Focus Blast, Shadow Ball, and Signal Beam. Never even opted for hidden powers on it sets in competitive DP because the rest of its movepool is better. slightly better
>TyphlosionUsually opted for HP Grass over TPunch even in Gen 3, but Gen 4 still gave it Focus Blast anyways, which is a huge improvement considering before Fighting coverage was considered so necessary on Typhlosion that you would run Focus Punch just to have it. slightly better
>Mr.Mime/AmpharosMention these because they're special attackers that had access to these moves (Ampharos only had Fire Punch) but didn't use them in oldgens for the same reason they wouldn't use them now: They're not viable options. Both these mons got access to new moves like Focus Blast, and are overall better from the transition.
And... that's like it. Everything else that had access to these moves were physical attackers that benefited from the change, or already had access to better versions of these moves. People only remember the elemental punch thing because they were a big deal for Gengar and Alakazam, but Gengar is in the running for most-improved in the gen change, and Alakazam really is only in UU because Scizor shuts it down so thoroughly, otherwise it's way better than its Gen 3 incarnation. The reality of the situation is: A LOT of things change between Gens 3 and 4, including Smogon tiering processes, so just looking at "LUL UUBL -> NU GARDEVOIR GOT WORSE" is really ignoring the part where it got objectively better, just not as much as Gengar, Gyarados, etc.
