>>44700307My list is fairly different from yours so I'll explain why I thought your picks weren't the best, though I do understand your logic.
>RaichuPikachu was extremely rare and weak. It being the mascot didn't mean people had the patience to find one let alone use it.
>NidokingWhile the Double Kick reasoning is sound, in reality most people didn't bother using the Nidoran line until much later. Most Charmander kids either spammed Scratch like there was no tomorrow on Brock or caught a Caterpie and evolved it into Butterfree fairly soon, even without being aware it'd know Confusion. Then they'd box it after a while.
>GyaradosWhile everyone bought the Magikarp, not everyone bothered to train it. In fact most people didn't, some did leave it at the day care center and forgot about it though, so an attempt was made.
>SnorlaxThis is actually a good pick of yours but Snorlax wasn't as common as the mons on my list for multiple reasons:
1.) many people just said fuck it and fainted it
2.) ash hadn't caught one yet so it hadn't had a bigger boost in popularity yet
3.) many people didn't even bother to prepare to catch it and didn't save either
Still, Snorlax became a staple in every subsequent game for sure.
>GengarFirst, no one had a trade evo. Second, Haunter/Gastly only had Lick and no one was wasting their TMs on these guys. Thunderbolt went to Jolteon. Most people were done with the Tower after beating Team Rocket there too, so no one bothered coming back to catch these.
Now onto Gen 2 (G/S):
>Typhlosion/FeraligatrBasically same reason as before, Feraligatr was super common, it's weird that people pretend otherwise now.
>AmpharosEasy answer and same as yours.
>SpearowFlybot and giftmon, no one bothered to return it either.