I don't really know the Pokemon franchise that well, but how "egregious" is the example, really? I'd been under the impression that Gym Leaders are testing a set of skills (the ability to acquire, care for, and train Pokemon) that player characters are simply abnormally blessed with compared to the regular population, and that giving instructions on just where to go and what to catch/train to beat a leader's "badge test team" remains a significant challenge by the setting standards, even if in gameplay terms it reduces things to a bit of grinding.
I don't really know the Pokemon franchise that well, but how "egregious" is the example, really? I'd been under the impression that Gym Leaders are testing a set of skills (the ability to acquire, care for, and train Pokemon) that player characters are simply abnormally blessed with compared to the regular population, and that giving instructions on just where to go and what to catch/train to beat a leader's "badge test team" remains a significant challenge by the setting standards, even if in gameplay terms it reduces things to a bit of grinding.