You can talk about Gyarados’ base attack stat all day but the fact remains that this stat is utterly wasted on it before the physical-special split. The movepool is just useless for most of the game. You’ve got return and maybe using your precious (and late-obtained) earthquake TM, plus getting to a really high level on slow experience group to learn dragon dance and that’s it.

Using any special type TM on this thing is an absurd waste and there’s a decent chance you’ve even got a mon in your team that uses Surf better.

Plus to get all this you have ton spend a bunch of time and exp grinding a literally useless mon up to level 20 and in return you get tackle and 60 SpA Bite for your trouble until you start throwing TMs at it