I always find it interesting when people don’t keep their starters. I don’t think I’m capable of going that route.
I agree, it's actually quite refreshing though. Somehow that Grass/Fire/Water-core is hardwired into our Pokémon mainframe, at least with me it is to some degree.
I think it comes down to when picking a team, most people pick teams based on
aeshetics and the three starters are designed to have something that's appealing for most target audiences so unless a region is packed with a lot of favorites, the starter is likely to stay. That and how much we like to tell ourselves that these are just bits in a game, we kinda bond with the starter.
Hoenn for instance is packed with good picks - and Sceptile is right up my alley (fast, slick design, dinosaur'esque).. But I usually tend to go with Blaziken since I like so many other Grass-types
and Water-types in Hoenn as well (Breloom, Shiftry and Tropius in particular). I mean outside of OrAs (Mega Sceptile adds a valuable Dragon-typing), Blaziken just fills the hole in my team so much better, because otherwise I will end up with three Grass-types on my team by the end of the run. xD
But then again, that entire 'hole' is just a perceived notion that I somehow need to complete a Grass/Fire/Water-core and thus I need to pick the Fire/Fighting-type in
Hoenn of all regions. Even the Ice-type specialist has Water-types..
Torkoal and Camerupt are not my bro's.
However, I could see a playthrough happening in Emerald where I'd ditch the starter and get Houndour as my Fire-type in the Safari Zone. It's Dark-type would help against Tate&Liza and Phoebe (outside of being weak to Claydol, Solrock and Lunatone's Ground/Rock-moves)... >.>