I remember reading that Area Zero has half as many spawners as the rest of the overworld combined. I found two shinies there just while beating the story mode. It's more likely that spawns are just much more common there, and thus shinies are as well.
They probably did it on purpose
But why? Neither the normal nor the Paradox Pokemon hint that the other exists, nor is there something to gain for having both the normal and Paradox Pokemon thus making it an extra challenge. There is no reason to do this switch cause it's not like their equivalent of each other. "Man, sucks I can't normally get Flutter Mane, but at least I can get Mismagius"! In addition, if you had all the normal version of the Paradox Pokemon in the same version, you can have a group spawn in Area Zero somewhere to hint why there's a Paradox "relative" of that Pokemon.
or they thought it added mystique or something to that effect
Idk it makes sense to me with the context of previous games. At this point the pseudos as a group, as well as Misdreavus, have an established history of version exclusivity in the main series, while Gardevoir/Gallade, Jigglypuff, Amoonguss, Magneton, and Hariyama do not (I don't think White Forest counts).
I hate to sound like a broken record, but why? Okay, it's done on purpose... why?
Why need Dragapult when we have Tyranitar that can fill that role? "But Tyranitar isn't a Special Attacker". Yeah, but that doesn't mean Iron Thorns couldn't be. Heck with Iron Thorns stubby arms maybe they should have made it more like a turret sentry. Instead of Rock/Electric it could be Electric/Dark. And if they want to have a "Dark-type that loses that Type thus becomes kinder", they still have Iron Jugulis (make it Dragon/Flying, or better yet Dragon/Steel and make it resemble a tank!).
I mentioned Dragapult simply because to my knowledge it's the only Version Exclusive Pseudo in SV that isn't linked to a Paradox, so it seemed the most immediate to slot into the role if we weren't rearranging any already existing mons and relatives and instead just having "Iron Artillery" or something.
Was literally going to post something in this thread this morning and mmmyeah this more or less probably answers it
It's especially odd as Diglett's Cave is right next to it which would have made more sense.
Being a reference to Giovanni is a stretch, particularly since Giovanni has no particular connection to Viridian Forest in the games and hasn't ever used a Numel to my knowledge.
Mechanically speaking, why does the Soul Dew exist? In fan-made rulesets like Smogon, it used to be banned because the Latis were busted with such huge boosts to their Special Attack and Special Defense, but this isn't something that Game Freak thought was balanced and then banned by fans. No, Game Freak knew that this item was busted. In official rulesets (both single and multiplayer) where restricted legendaries like Mewtwo and Kyogre are banned, Soul Dew is also banned, or disabled in the case of Gens 3 and 4 battle facilities. Game Freak had been making trios of unrestricted legendaries since Gen 1. Hell, they made another trio of unrestricted legendaries in Gen 3. But when it came to designing the first unrestricted legendary duo, Game Freak decided to also give them a held item that turned them into restricted legendaries because... why? What was the thought process behind intentionally giving them an item that makes them Mewtwo tier? What was the thought process behind intentionally forcing every game until Sun and Moon to muddy its official banlist with this one single item. Because again, it was intentionally busted. From its very conception, this held item was treated the same as whole restricted Pokemon by Game Freak themselves.
:)
