whats a game that you got significantly far into, only to realize you were doing something wrong or missing a key feature/ability altogether?

Honestly, most status moves aren't worth it in normal, AI battles because the pokemon AI is so bad.

Sword dance and nasty plot are the exception. Use that once or twice and you can usually sweep the entire opponent team with one hits. They're also fantastic in the raid features that the last 2 generations have had. A big meta in SV raids was belly drum + drain punch (which would easily heal the damage belly drum dealt). It's practically impossible to win 6+ star raids without status moves. Some of them are so brutally hard that you have to go for cheese strategies.

I forced my way through that cave in Blue/Red that was completely pitch black. I don't know why I didn't get HM Flash (I was a dumb kid). I remember listening intenselywith headphones to the noises that would be made from running into walls, along with counting each press of the d-pad so I could sorta figure out where I was. Still got lost often. I don't know how many poor Zubats I murdered in that cave trying to get through it. Nor do I remember how long it took me to get to the other side.

I played Pokemon games against other kids in battles, and I also never saw merit in the status effects. If it didn't deal damage, it was just a waste of a move.

Now, my experience is solely from the original Red/Blue generation so maybe they've gotten a bit more complex, but the first games were shallow af.