Problem is that Fighting is supposed to be physical oriented, like how Psychic is special-oriented, general-wise at least.
Psychic has (checks Bulbapedia) two Physical moves with good distribution: Psycho Cut and Zen Headbutt. And only the latter is commonly used in competitive. It's as bad as Special Fighting in that regard, or only slightly better depending on your luck on Focus Blast.
Ah... Conquest Rock Wrecker. That attack range sure is awkward, how you can't retaliate in close range.
The problem with Special Attacking Fighting types is that the three most reliable moves Fighting Moves for Special Attackers is Focus Blast, Aura Sphere, and Secret Sword. Focus Blast has high power, but it’s accuracy makes it inconsistent compared to Aura Sphere- you only a 49% chance to land to Focus Blasts in a row. Aura Sphere is the opposite, perfectly accurate but low base power. And Secret Sword is a signature move. Compare that to Close Combat, Superpower, and High Jump Kick, these are all very powerful with despite drawbacks, and with the former two being 100% accurate while the other is 90% accurate, you can see why Fighting is a better physical attacker type. All the Fighting types with the exception of Keldeo that can also be special have usable attack stats, namely Lucario, Kommo-o, Pheromosa, and maybe Mienshao, Cobalion, and Virizion if we are being generous.
Psychic's physical moves may be worse than Fighting's special moves, but they see more use by actual STAB users because Psychic has more than one dedicated physical attacker compared to Fighting's lone Keldeo. Gallade, Medicham, Metagross, Solgaleo, Solrock...
I don't mind that attack profile itself, it works fine for Thunder (accuracy issues aside) and Confusion in the early game. Where it gets awkward is that Rhyperior only has 2 move and wants to use its high defenses.
Adding on what DrPumpkinz said, I didn’t refer Fighting and Psychic with just their moves. I also talk about the Pokémon with either of these types in general.
It gets Sheer Force instead of Technician, but it still has Swarm and Steadfast like Scyther does.
To be honest, even just being able to throw LO boosted Rock Slides with no downside other than the 90% accuracy on its own is pretty scary.
Offensively, EdgeQuake with UTurn is pretty good, but the speed and hazard vulnerability will get it wrecked. Actually, why does Rock not resist itself? That seems obvious and yet, nope. Bug/Rock is a decent defensive typing other than that.
Honestly, given the animation of the Noble Kleavor when it appears spinning through the air when you encounter it, I could totally see them giving it Rapid Spin. Plus, since Rapid Spin boosts the user's speed now, it'll get the full power of Sheer Force + Life Orb.
Not that uncommon, I feel
For 3 of the Light Metal users it just drops Low Kick/Grass Knot by 20 BP. I suppose that's not...terrible, in concept. But in practice the table looks like this:
On Mega Scizor sets like in Uber and 1v1, Light Metal lets Mega Scizor switch into Low Kick better and prevents like an opponent like Porygon2 from Tracing Technician, which could power up Hidden Power.
I think it's rather telling that a selling point of Light Metal is preventing Trace users from copying an ability they'd actually want.
I agree, I was surprised Hi Jump Kick has an accuracy higher than 80%.
Also Scizor can only gain access to Curse if it has Light Metal, but sets that used it all made it Mega-evolve.
I mostly agree with your post, but I want to raise a small point of defense for Heracross. I think it does feel artificial when viewed through the lens of our knowledge that it was a change/addition that they made specifically for female Heracross. But if taken on its own terms, I think it’s not too glaring. Like, if Heracross had been designed from the beginning with the heart-shaped horn instead of the prongs, it wouldn’t look as forced. Obviously there’s no rewriting history, but personally I always look at the female horn and think of it as kind of like a shovel — on its own, if separated from the connotation of why it was added, it feels like it’s a body feature that could make physiological sense, because Heracross uses its horn to scoop up and hurl its opponents. The shovel-like tip would be somewhat useful for distributing that weight.But the following cases are probably the worst:
1) Female Heracross and Pikachu having heart-shaped body parts.
It just feels so glaringly artificial, whereas the male versions are "default".
I never got this justification for running Light Metal on Scizor. As the generations have gone by, fewer and fewer viable Pokemon in Ubers are running Low Kick, and the most common user of the move, Blaziken, is not a matchup Scizor will ever want to be up against. I'd still run Technician since Scizor would be able to bluff something like a band set when revenge killing a weakened mon like Xerneas (and not megaing). Is it an extremely niche trick that will almost never work and rarely affect gameplay? Yeah, pretty much, but I'd argue the benefits here are far more potent than the benefits that you'd ever get by running Light Metal.
