I was a smogontard back when weather wars was completely busted in gen 4/5. They claim they want to remove 'unbalanced' shit but they leave in all sorts of things that busted (like Stealth Rocks which everyone has hated literally since gen 4 when it was introduced) and over centralizing that makes the game over all less fun.
Their actual 'goal' is flawed because Pokemon is not inherently a skill game. You can't create an 'even playing filed' that objectively tests skill because then it just boils 800 Pokemon and hundreds of items into enough to fit in a humming bird's menstrual cup. Two people using only the mathematically and objectively best monsters then, more or less, end up just playing fancy Rock, Paper, Scissors.
It's not so much tactical thinking as it is merely memorizing and regurgitating the meta. Lando T has a few variants and so is almost always going to do the same couple things. Swaping in something with Magic Bounce against rocks doesn't make you a tactical genius, it just means you've watched literally ANY match with a Lando T.
VGC isn't immune to a lot of the same problems though, or else Incineroar and Xerneas wouldn't have had like 90% usage rates. Part of the problem is just that, inherently, Pokemon is a dogshit competitive game. I at least appreciate Smogon sorting them into tiers, because the lower ones are actually kind of fun.
