The utility of buffs and debuffs does seem to go down in 1 v 1 scenarios.

Its eye certainly does.

strategy-less behavior

Status moves are generally not as good in single battles tbh, it's more strategical to go unga-bunga in singles, esp when you're dealing with CPU during the main story. The most you do is set up Swords Dance to enable a sweep

Hit

Mfs using Geomancy on their xerneas, like It doesnt even do anything and Takes 2 turns, what???

People always take this article personally but if these effects really mattered how come I beat every single thing you could do in Red/Blue without using them at age 7???

This is how I felt about buffing moves until DQ and SMT lmao. It's kinda intensified in Pokemon since it's mostly 1v1

Me playing pokemon when I was 7:

You use Rain Dance because it boosts water-type moves and gives Thunder 100% accuracy I use it because "Haha how could it be raining inside this metro line silly Gamefreak" We are not the same