In the past, Neo Genesis sought to balance the game with a "your opponent can do it too" effect (see Double Gust). Later, the E-sets introduced Supporters and coin flips (Pokemon Reversal) to those cards instead and that seemed to work. Later equivilant effects required you to jump through some hoop, like a stage requirement or a level up.
We were in HGSS-On when this card was released. I commented that this card should have been a Supporter. In the manga, the Pokemon Catcher is a girl who specializes in catching pokemon so it made sense to me. My PTO pointed out that it would have been a bad decision to make it a Supporter because item-lock would not be able to stop it. In context, that made sense. It created a sort of chess-like play: Player A has to play 2 or more Oddish--with 40 HP!--on the same turn; Player B has to reply with a Pokemon Catcher to KO an Oddish; Player A then has to play Rare Candy --> Vileplume OR bench another Oddish; if Player A failed, then Player B uses Pokemon Catcher to KO the other Oddish. A complex form of balance.
That Gust of Wind had never found its way into any set after Base Set made BW a real experiment. In BW-On, what we have is an absence of bench-sitters. In the past, even stage 2 pokemon could set up the game. Delcatty, Pidgeot, Magcargo, Claydol, Uxie lvX. In BW, we easily have Musharna and Empoleon. However, Pokemon Catcher and no reliable item-lock means these pokemon will not be able to settle into the bench and this type of set up no longer exists. It supports the game's current reliance on massive draw (the increasing presence of Tropical Beach) and items for set up. Maybe that isn't so bad? It is a different style of play. What does make it bad is it encourages less variety in the game because there is less opportunity for basics to evolve into stage 2 and less opportunity for a deck that would thrive with set-up support.
Its reprinting in DEX very likely indicates that we will be stuck with it for another year. This wasn't just some early on way to balance item lock by making it easier to KO Oddish.
