>>53755128nta but I'd say the actual metric of a design being inherently good is whether it has the intended effect on the audience that the artist wants it to have.
with that in mind, whether certain pokemon make for objectively good designs (whether you think they're subjectively good is ultimately irrelevant) depends on what exactly they were designed for, but given that starters are designed with the intent of being more universally liked than the rest of the dex, you could make a case for them being worse designs than older starters just by virtue of how mixed of a reception they have in comparison to some of the earliest generations.
