>>56364544Because pokemon are friends, and you are forced to accept a starter pokemon into your team at the beginning. Not using your starter means either boxing it or releasing it, which most people don't want to do. From what I see of people posting teams online and talking about the games for years, most people also just use a static team of 6 for the whole game and never catch things they intend to leave in the box, except maybe legendaries and gift pokemon. Plus, by the time you can catch your first pokemon, your starter is usually several levels higher than the wild and trainer pokemon, so they feel useful and people don't want to drop them. So the starter just has a way higher chance to be part of someone's team than anything else.
