Monster Train takes a similar approach, giving players more control over a subset of units, abilities, and items, rather than one hero-like character
Turo and Penny were a bit of a niche supporter cards that allowed putting our Pokmon back into our hand, avoiding difficult situations, and even restarting the prize trade
It's also useful in the most competitive Commander decks that want to win within the first three turns
As hard as it may be to believe today, during this time Pokemon was falling off of its original popularity a bit, meaning print runs for sets that included the now famous Gold Star Pokemon were limited
Even ignoring how Tinker can cheat powerful artifact creatures into play, theres any number of other ultra-powerful artifacts that combo up effectively with it