Tbh I always had the impression that the games were events that adults set up so kids could have a good time because that's the only way they could stay internally consistent most of the time. Villain teams were just adults fucking around playing antagonists, gym leaders and champions intentionally play at a lower level to match newer trainers (I feel like this might have been canon in the anime?), etc
it gets harder to logically justify when pokemon are doing reality warping shit in like sun/moon though
https://imgur.com/LabbRyN
raytan and Kana are on opposite ends of the Awesome Spectrum.