>>11774881
Dark type being special was dumb as hell (or a mistake) considering even the newly-added dark moves were all physical themed like mugging or harder biting, but
>Johto pokemon
It was a "newly discovered pokemon" at the time, not strictly linked to Johto in the way future generations all did with their new dexes. The formula hadn't been locked in and having a (stripped down) Kanto shoved in gave more room to spread them around for better or worse.