Love the bias in this thread.
Cynthia uses the most powerful pseudo-legendary ever created, along with the annoying Milotic and a Pokémon that has no weaknesses (Spiritomb). But Lance, with four Pokémon weak to Ice, is the one who's called a n00b! Really, sometimes people amaze me.
I also think it's not fair to evaluate Lance based on his old team from GSC. In the rematch, his team is awesome, although the heavy Ice weakness remains, but Garchomp, Charizard and Dragonite can sort of maneuver around it. And usually his Dragons are strong enough to take a non-STAB Ice attack and retaliate with a powerful move. Also, if you let Gyarados set up, you lost.
Cynthia has a great team with a lot of unique Pokémon, but Lance is also a worthy Champion and the one I would choose as a favorite character. I didn't find Cynthia that unique TBH. I think the most unique Champion ever is Alder, because of his philosophy and how he helped Cheren develop into a different kind of trainer. Cynthia was like Steven, someone mysterious who helps you and has an interest in something (Steven looks for rare rocks, while Cynthia investigates myths). All of Cynthia, Lance and Steven are quite similar in their approach to the player.