I swear this is an interesting question.
A discussion on which Pokemon is considered the most pointless and which Pokemon is considered the most important.
PKMN Lengthy Discussions is inspired by jan Misali's analysis videos.
A lot of Pokemon are just Pokemon to people. Unless you have an attachment to them, a Pokemon like Oddish is just an Oddish, nothing more.
But certain Pokemon have been engraved into popularity by being in a mental category. Starters, Legendaries, Mythicals, Shinies, and also just Pikachu, they aren't just Pokemon to us, they have a purpose.
When answering the most important Pokemon, we'll have to talk about the Pokemon that led to the success of the franchise, and the Pokemon that, in the story, if it didn't exist, the Pokemon world wouldn't exist.
The success of the franchise actually didn't come with the release of Red and Green in 1996. It actually gained success a couple months after.
In April, 1996, the first ever Pokemon event happened, though exclusively to Japan. The event was to catch a Mew. While the event was happening, Pokemon sales increased by a lot, and that's how Pokemon gained a liking. It soon got a third game, Pokemon Blue (Japan), it got released internationally, and it obviously got much more games afterwards. Yellow, then GSC, then RSE, etc.
If the Mew event never happened, Pokemon wouldn't exist now. Mew's wide popularity in Japan made Pokemon's wide popularity in Japan, and around the globe.
But what about in story?
In story is much more difficult to figure out. Some good picks are Arceus, Mew, and the Archen line, for being ancestors, or any Legendary. Overall, though, Arceus is the God of the Pokemon universe, and Mew is the "first Pokemon ever" (check PKMNLD2 for my analysis on that), so it's very, very confusing to figure it out. But if we go on my results from PKMNLD2, then Mew being first is a lie. Arceus is most important for every region. For region specific, it can change. Solgaleo, Lunala, and Necrozma are certainly the second most important for the region of Alola, Zacian and Zamazenta are important for Galar, etc., but Arceus is more overall, acting as a God for every region.
When talking about the most pointless, that is much more difficult. Really any non-categorized Pokemon can be pointless. We could've easily lived without Oddish, or Sentret, or, honestly, most Legendary Pokemon (I also made a PKMNLD on this, PKMNLD5), but I want to talk about the Pokemon that shouldn't exist because it seems like Game Freak didn't care about what they were doing with it.
Some obvious picks are the very hated object Pokemon. Vanilluxe, Garbodor, Electrode, Muk, Klefki, Klinklang, etc.
A lot of late gen (Gen 5 - now) Pokemon do have meanings. Garbodor and Vanilluxe do have inspirations that aren't trash and ice cream, and Klefki and Klinklang have inspirations that aren't keys or cogs and gears. But, it's obvious that early gen (Gen 1 - 4) Pokemon don't have as much thought. They have some, but not a lot. This leaves the two object Pokemon that honestly probably had 0 thought into the making of them, but no one cares because Gen 1 is "perfect."
The Voltorb, while being absolutely terrible in the originality department (sorry), is interesting. They act as pseudo-Poke Balls (like Stunfisk and Foongus' line), but they can explode, which was an interesting feature for an otherwise bland Pokemon game (at least compared to now). Plus, their Hisuian forms are kinda cute, and have thought.
Grimer and Muk have nothing special. Poison types were way too common (Venusaur, Victreebel, Vileplume, Beedrill, etc.) and they have no fun feature like Electrode. They honestly just never needed to exist (not sorry). And, unlike Voltorb and Electrode's Hisuian forms, Grimer and Muk's Alolan forms aren't good enough to where it changes my opinion.
The most important PKMN (franchise-wise): Mew
The most important PKMN (story-wise): Arceus
The most pointless PKMN: Grimer / Muk
