Well a lot of the pokemon in this gen that have 3-4 of the same thing but are diferent elements and only look slightly different I'm assuming are because of that whole "seasonal pokemon" jazz they are doing this go 'round where you can only catch certain pokemon three months out of the year.

That makes sense for the 4 fighting type legendaries, but not for the monkeys or genies. If they wanted to do that for the genies they still could've at least been creative with them instead of sticking them all with the same base sprite. And the monkeys as well, they look almost exactly the same.

Yeah, I got nothing other than a deep yearning for Gamefreak to stop cranking out new pokemon generations with all these lame pokemon and instead work on a giant omnibus game that lets to pick your starting town among the various regions and your starting pokemon then lets you forge your own destiny "choose your own adventure" style across the world with various endings depending on if you collect badges, ribbons, or just want to collect all the damn pokemon.

It can be on the next consol or hand-held generation. I'm cool with waiting.

Yeah that would be awesome. Maybe we'll get that when they finally decided to let Pokemon die.

Oh also, there seems to be enough Normal-only pokemon to run a funsies team of them.

Minezumi Line (2 stages)
Yorterrie Line (3 stages)
Tabunne
Chillarmy Line (2 stages)
Buffalon

And if you really have to, you can add in one of the two birds for a dual Nomal/Flying type.

Washibon Line (2 stages)
Mamepato Line (3 stages)

EDIT: Just make sure your Chillarmy is in the TOP PERCENTAGE of Chillarmy.
EDIT 2: I bet the Joey of this game is a girl with a fluffy Chillarmy.

I can't help but fear that the whole "seasonal" thing is a misguided attempt to extend the game's life over a full year with the internal clock.

Talk about artificially lengthening gameplay.

They are used as a way to introduce the typing system to new players. The first gym leader has the type your starter is weak against and you get the one your starter is strong against just before the gym. It really was an interesting way to introduce it and not say, well now ya gotta grind to beat Brock because you chose Charmander.

I have a feeling that there are a number of references in their evolutions, but I can't put my finger on what. Some say they reference the three wise monkeys, but meh.

Or it's just like every other time you picked Charmander as a starter and you picked up a Mankey or a Pikachu to help you trounce the first two gyms and then used your starter to lay waste to the next few because it was a damn fire-breathing monster.

Picking the starter that was weak against the first two gyms is just the way to learn to use a team of pokemon better rather than march your starter over everything until three gyms down the road (or worse in the case of Bulbasaur in Gen 1) when you have to go find some decent pokemon to help you learn the lesson you should have been learning back before gym number one.

Not likely. The internal clock can be changed.

It certainly didn't stop Animal Crossing players, who had to deal with a town full of weeds every time they timeshifted for whatever purpose.

More like four months. That's how long the in-game year takes to repeat. A season a month.