tbh huge power Plusle just seems really bad. Plusle has a disgustingly bad physical movepool with the only moves worth mentioning being wild charge, quick attack, and obligatory return/frustration. You have to run HP Fire and Grass Knot in order to hit Ferroseed and Rhydon, but with no Sp. Atk investment, you're going to have a hard time finding 2hko's on stuff that ISN'T quad-weak to grass and fire (stuff like Vileplume, Regirock, Prinplup). With full Sp. Attack investment, Plusle hits a whopping 244 attack so the entire set seems like a moot point.
I think the mini-tour is a great example of how amazing drain punch yama is. I've seen it on most teams that have been posted in replays. It gives yama a reliable way to mitigate all the chip damage that eventually spells its demise. Yama also has more room to invest in special defense because of his colossal HP stat. Yama still loses to a lot of mons that gurdurr would also lose to, but
252 SpA Life Orb Mesprit Psychic vs. 252 HP / 124 SpD Hariyama: 416-491 (84.5 - 99.7%) -- guaranteed 2HKO
252 SpA Life Orb Mesprit Psychic vs. 248 HP / 8 SpD Eviolite Gurdurr: 374-445 (100.2 - 119.3%) -- guaranteed OHKO
I know it's a bit of an extreme example, but it shows you can pick mons you want and don't want to check yama.
But yeah, basically all Drain Punch does is make yama is a much better gurdurr is what I'm trying to get at.
Idk, Flash Fire Pyroar and EP Sceptile seem cute and all but they seem pretty circumstantial? Earth Power Scept pretty much only hits Drag, Muk, and any steel that you don't want to risk with Focus Blast. Flash Fire Pyroar seems good as a check to fire spam on paper, but then you realize that to switch it in, you have to go through a coin flip. "Will they use Eruption or Focus Blast?" Which, y'know, is definitely an improvement from what Pyroar did to fire spam previously. Just, to me, it doesn't seem like it makes the pokemon any more viable than it is now. Especially when we have hard counters to fire spam laying in the back. (Drain Punch also helps av yama check fire spam because he doesn't die to chip js :])
I would like to bring up a mon of my own if that's fine.
I've been playing around with the idea of Defog Rotom-S. I feel that Defog would provide Rotom-S with a cool new niche as being the only viable electric type Defogger in the tier. Unlike Pelipper (who does a similar job) he doesn't have any quad weaknesses and gets STAB from his momentum grabbing move (volt switch). Rotom-S is also the fastest defensive defogger and has options to go mixed defensive, specially defensive, or standard physically defensive. With other utility options such as Will-O-Wisp, Pain Split, and T-wave, I believe Rotom-S would be able to stand out from other defoggers in the tier.