>>58943451I think one of the biggest problems killing pokemon is the move coverage creep. Too many pokemon have too much access to move that are too powerful. The physical/special split is part of this, but most of the problem is being too lenient with move distribution, which was more strict in early gens. The thing is, it isn't so terribly useless to have mixed attacking stats if they actually gave you access to attacking with additional types. Now that pretty much every type has access to powerful moves of both the physical and special variety, pokemon get one shot too often and how good or bad something is can be decided 100% by being weak to moves like Close Combat and Earthquake because those moves are handed out like candy, even when it doesn't make sense.
You got to be more creative with movesets and make more deliberate choices when it was just automatically dictated that certain types had to attack you with certain stats. I wouldn't undo the physical special split 100%, but I would make it go back to being that generally speaking, most of the time, certain types would almost always be coming at you with a certain stat. Moves like Flare Blitz either shouldn't exist, or should have very very limited distribution. Maybe Abomasnow can have Wood Hammer, because Abomasnow is fucking dogshit, but generally speaking the grass type should be special attacks, etc.