>>58949508Your first encounter with Magikarp is meant to be a trap. You get one long before you've encountered any non-Squirtle Water types and it can't do anything for 15 levels. You won't be getting Gyarados before Misty unless you grind it, and it takes a while to do so. Your reward for your hard work is a great Water type but by the time you get Gyarados, you might have access to other Water types anyway
Togetic just feels like the result of not having plans for what Togepi was supposed to offer. It's Masuda's fault for introducing mechanics but not fleshing out the mechanics, where as Gen I mechanics tended to reward you for hard work. This would carry onto all his later games which is why mechanics get dropped all the time because they couldn't flesh them out to be satisfying rewards
