I daresay no, actually.
From Team Aqua/Magma on, all evil teams have been thorougly stupid, wanting to destroy the world for really contrived reasons. It mostly comes down to the hubris of their leader, who somehow tricks a bunch of grunts into following his plan. Said grunts follow the plan without questioning it, idiotically believing that "Team [name] will take over the world!" and that participation in the plan will somehow save them all from the destruction. They also dress in silly costumes, and serve more as comic relief than a legitimate threat.
And of course, the world as we know it is always at stake. This gets really boring after a while. It's always: "Save the world, 10-year-old, because nobody else bother to!". For being a threat to the world, surely the most powerful trainers around take the evil teams lightly. And true enough, the evil organization plotting to destroying/taking over the world is easily beaten by the 10-year-old. That gives me an impression that their plans weren't thought out at all, greatly diminishing the sensation of the world being threatened. In short, the evil teams from RSE on have been a bunch of weirdly-dressing doofuses who bite over way more than they could possibly hope to chew, with no consideration or no backup plan whatsoever.
Contrast Team Rocket, who, while having way smaller ambitions, also achieved the greatest success of all the evil teams.
Firstly, Team Rocket practically owned the region at the start of the game. Team Rocket members were bullying people and stealing Pokémon in every city in the region, save for Pallet Town and Pewter City (and maybe Fuchsia, I can't really remember). They weren't some fringe terrorist organization with greater ambitions than brains, they were the freakin' mafia. Their casino in Celadon raked in money for their organization, while also providing them with a hiding spot. Even though their lair on Cinnabar Island burned down, they succeeded in their plans there, creating Mewtwo (and subsequently losing control of it, but oh well, not really much they could do to stop that, and the player character had zero interference in that plan). The police were powerless to stop them, and Team Rocket managed to seize control of the headquarters of the greatest corporation in Kanto, stealing their technology.
And the grunts? Instead of brainwashed nobodies tricked into following a plan to the end of the world, they willingly joined for money and power. Team Rocket members, freely strolling the streets of Kanto in uniform, were openly bragging about their membership. Meanwhile, the name of the organization was only whispered by others, fearing the iron grip they held on Kanto. At the start of the game, Team Rocket might have been the single most powerful organization in Kanto, nobody opposing them but this one, idealist, talented trainer from Pallet Town. They were at the top of the game, having even infiltrated the Pokémon League (with Giovanni being an official Gym Leader), they were making butt-loads of money, and successfully stole all the Pokémon they wanted. And that was it. They didn't feel like needlessly destroying the world. Kanto was theirs already, they had got everything they wanted. They felt like a powerful enemy, because they were powerful. And instead of beating their leaders in silly outfits, you went from town to town in Kanto, beating back Team Rocket grunts, loosening their grasp on Kanto until you managed to convince their leader to give up and live a crime-free life. He then walks away, unscathed and unpunished. As a ten-year-old, you might convince him to disband the organization, but you have no way of giving him his deserved punishment, or making him speak for his crimes in court. Truly, Giovanni didn't fall from power, he simply stepped down and walked away a free man.
As for the legendary Pokémon, they stayed legendary. Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno were hidden in the most remote corners of the region, outside Team Rocket's sphere of influence, and outside their plans at all, for that matter. What could Team Rocket hope to achieve with them, anyway? They had the region at their fingertips already, no need to bother with a few ultra-rare birds hanging around in the middle of nowhere. Team Rocket didn't need any Legendaries to achieve their goal. Their goal was money and power, and they already had it all when you started your adventure.
TL;DR: Instead of simply observing an evil team trying to destroy the world (and being totally unable to influence it, apart from causing them to fail at the last minute), RBY had you face a powerful organization and actively bring them down from power. Team Rocket were way more badass than all the rest of the evil teams combined.
I agree with all of this.
Out of all the evil teams that we've seen in pokemon, Team Rocket was the only organisation with plans that were understandable/practical/could be related to by criminals in the real world. They wanted to make money and gain power, plain and simple, while not caring how many pokemon/trainers they had to hurt to achieve that goal.
Contrast that with the the other team, you quickly get a sense of how future organisations were created only with a sense of grandiose (and no common sense) in mind.
Team Aqua/Magma: At best they can be called eco-terrorists. But even then, what reasons did they give for wanting more land/oceans? 'Pokemon need more water/soil?' How does that make sense? Pokemon have clearly been around for eons with the existing land masses in place, with no complains. Same with the residents of Hoenn.
Team Galactic: "Our leader is clearly an emotionless insane psychopath who was probably abused as a child. We'll follow him anyway." That makes so much sense. Not. And what did they do to achieve their goals- they steal pixies AND BLEW UP THE 3 LAKES. Because it was really hard to snatch the pixies and just leave quietly. No, they had to leave all those carps to die (bastards) and alert just about everyone in Sinnoh.
And how does a chain manage to trap Dialga/Palkia/open the gateway to the
Pokemon hell Distortion world again? I don't how many pixies were tortured to make it, a chain will not let you do any of the above.
Team Plasma: As much as I loved Ghetsis and his plot (which would have worked if it wasn't for the meddling kids), his 'colleagues' were eh... less brilliant, to say the least. The 7 sages had cool outfits but... no pokemon. Not even a Patrat. I know that they were old and thought that they were too important to fight, but would it have
really been that hard to give them a pokemon in a world where any 10 year old can get one? They need
some way to defend themselves but instead, they surrounded themselves with grunts and hid in frozen storage areas. Better to freeze than to try and fight.
And the grunts. Dear god, a psychiatrist wouldn't be able to work out what in the world they were thinking...
"We're going to liberate pokemon! We love pokemon! But I love kicking this Munna more."
What?
For an evil genius, Ghetsis surrounded himself with third class idiots, even by evil team standards. Unless that's what he wanted all along, stupid folks to brain wash.
Team Flare: More worried about their clothes than about changing the world. Enough said.
And last point in defence of Team Rocket. Sure, they didn't use a cover legend to blow up the world but they were (IMO) the most evil team out there.
A million is a statistic, Team ABC tries to kill everyone and it doesn't even seem that horrific/cruel.
Tema Rocket on the other hand:
- Beat pokemon with whips.
-And the Slowpokes.. God, the Slowpokes... :(
Well in b/w2 they at least had team plasma go and freeze entire cities in ice that could not be harmed along with a bunch of ninja badasses that could KNOCK YOU OUT AND TELEPORT you to where ever!
I'm sorry, but ninjas and ice to do not make a team cool/successful.
All team rocket had was a bunch of zubats and ratatas that spent all of their time either breeding more low level zubats or ratatas or having their asses kicked because ALL THEY HAD WERE ZUBATS AND RATATAS.
They had Zubats/rats because that's how an evil organisation works. In the mafia, do you have the lowest members running around with machine guns/kevlar vests/tanks? I think not.
Many of the citizens would not have had pokemon in the first place, so a cheap bat provided by Giovanni would have been more than enough to terrorise the population.
Hey, just thought of something: Giovanni = Italian name
Tema Rocket is the mafia!
PS: I am so sorry for all the typos that I'm sure plague this rant.
