>>54140525I thunk you have the wrong perspective. There are plenty of bad or unusable Kanto mons. You listed ones that are minmaxed and/or have high BST's. Having access to a typing with few weaknesses and good coverage, stats of 125 or above, and moves that can increase sped and power simultaneously will always equal a recipe for success.
It's also crucial to keep in mind historical context. Powercreep massively from generation to generation from Gen 4 / Gen 5 onward. Some mons being updated to benefit, others neglected. Alakazam was a virtual shitmon after Gen 1 until it got Magic Guard. Dragonite was bootleg Salamence until it got Multiscale. Mega-less Gengar teeters on the brink of irrelevancy in every gen past III (except for BDSP).
Yes, there were a lot of failings with plenty of Johto and Hoenn mons' debuts, some that were never truly corrected later on. But there are also plenty that are not actually objectively bad, but unviable because of the presence of mons that happen to counter them or outclass them too hard.
Both Gen II and Gen III are very cutthroat environments.
