When Garbodor is often criticized, the inevitable response is to compare it to Muk. The purpose of is to fixate on the point that "bad designs always existed!", or and to label the opposition as hypocritical. The implication is that Muk is a terrible design that is only propped up by nostalgia, and that no one actually likes it, but that couldn't be further from the truth
On the Pokemon of the Year 2020 poll, Muk placed 16 out of 151 Pokemon with 14358 votes. This is impressive because it beat out commonly referred to "good designs" like Nidoking, Vulpix, and Venusaur
What's the reason for this kind of success? What about Muk resonates with people that they want to have it on their teams as opposed to Garbodor?