JustaSandwich posted...
A lot of gen 1 weirdness doesn't make sense for single player either, though. Like, you go through all this trouble to get this big, rare Dragon type...but its only Dragon move does weak, fixed damage that makes no use of the pokemon's typing or stats? Or adding a unique pair of pokemon players must earn by beating the dojo, and one is themed around punching, and yet almost all the punch moves are special attack moves while the punch pokemon is a physical attacker? How does that kind of stuff benefit kids going through single player?
Dragonite is the second highest BST Pokemon you can get legitimately after Mewtwo. He naturally learns Hyper Beam (again, whole game revolves around Normal), a host of TMs, and Agility, Wrap, Thunder Wave which is pretty broken. That's the big payoff, mainly Hyper Beam. He is designed to give you a huge pile of stats for leveling one of the slowest pokemon possible and to be Lance's ace. Dragon resists Grass, Water, and Fire - the three types you probably have over-invested into.
I get calling it Gen 1 weirdness and seeing the pay off not worth the investment, but the vision is there.