>>57975001 (OP)From an actual game design standpoint they are both basically the same, however from a writing standpoint Snorlax is much better.
With Sudowoodo the way to get past it is to simply go around it and get an item right next to it that lets you fight it, while with Snorlax it feels much more like an incidental chain of events that you have to piece together.
RBY is "because you did X you can Y now"
>because you beat Rocket at the Game Corner you got the Silph Scope which allows you to scale the Pokemon Tower and get the PokeFlute to awaken SnorlaxWith GSC it's "You do X and Y happens"
>you beat Whitney and now the gardener lady feels compelled to give you a watering can to use on SudowoodoIt's kinda the start of Game Freak's bad habit of arbitrarily locking story progression behind beating gym leaders with no justification for it.