Bughouse
Like ships in the night, you're passing me by
I think a big deal with regards to the Flavor pushback, me included, is that with the introduction of Gen V, just take a look at abilities. If you're not a starter, a pseudo-legendary, or a legendary, you are overwhelmingly likely to have 3 abilities. Actually, if you take a look at what DOESN'T have 3 abilities, you'll see that moreover many of the things without 3 abilities aren't "normal" per se. Quite a bit of things with 1 or 2 abilities are things with 1 ability that are defining, like Ferrothorn, Zoroark, or Cofagrigus.
Most Gen V mons have 3 abilities of which, in most cases, 1 is competitive. Jellicent is a good example. Water Absorb is the competitive option. Cursed Body technically has competitive use, but it's situational and haxy. Damp is utterly useless on a Ghost. Galvantula has Compoundeyes, which is amazing as it enables Thunder spamming. Swarm and Unnerve become utterly useless in comparison. Even when Pokemon have 2 competitive abilities, in many cases, 1 sees the vast majority of the use because it's just better. Skill Link outweighs Technician (and Cute Charm) on Cinccino.
Obviously there are some issues with the way this works, since abilities like Compoundeyes, Skill Link, and Technician are all potentially amazing or relatively useless given movepool, which we don't decide until later, so that's a moot point really.
If we're trying to make CAPs fit the optics of Gen V Pokemon, 3 abilities should be our most frequent outcome, though 2 is acceptable as well, just less common. Most Gen V Pokemon who have 3 abilities have at least one of them totally outclassed, even if it's not technically a "useless" ability (see Sheer Force on Braviary, with just Rock Slide to abuse it.) Most Gen V Pokemon actually have 2 or more "competitive" abilities, yet most of the time one is clearly dominating.
Do we want to reflect the optics of Gen V to the tee? It's not necessary, but that's where the pushback comes from.
Most Gen V mons have 3 abilities of which, in most cases, 1 is competitive. Jellicent is a good example. Water Absorb is the competitive option. Cursed Body technically has competitive use, but it's situational and haxy. Damp is utterly useless on a Ghost. Galvantula has Compoundeyes, which is amazing as it enables Thunder spamming. Swarm and Unnerve become utterly useless in comparison. Even when Pokemon have 2 competitive abilities, in many cases, 1 sees the vast majority of the use because it's just better. Skill Link outweighs Technician (and Cute Charm) on Cinccino.
Obviously there are some issues with the way this works, since abilities like Compoundeyes, Skill Link, and Technician are all potentially amazing or relatively useless given movepool, which we don't decide until later, so that's a moot point really.
If we're trying to make CAPs fit the optics of Gen V Pokemon, 3 abilities should be our most frequent outcome, though 2 is acceptable as well, just less common. Most Gen V Pokemon who have 3 abilities have at least one of them totally outclassed, even if it's not technically a "useless" ability (see Sheer Force on Braviary, with just Rock Slide to abuse it.) Most Gen V Pokemon actually have 2 or more "competitive" abilities, yet most of the time one is clearly dominating.
Do we want to reflect the optics of Gen V to the tee? It's not necessary, but that's where the pushback comes from.