Yep, totally miss Arbok and Weezing. What better Pokémon was there for a group of thieves than a Pokémon that could fill the entire area with smoke and incapacitate your enemies? And Arbok was just cool. One of the best G1 Pokémon, right there. Lickitung was pretty cool, too, but Victreebel was pretty much just for comic relief.I do think Seviper is cool, but I'd prefer Arbok...it makes sense that Team Rocket would have to acquire new Pokémon, though.
How could you hate Team Rocket? I usually enjoyed their scenes...and I always thought they weren't ever given enough credit. I'm watching through the 1st season of the anime right now for the first time in maybe about 10 years, and I've noticed that most of their schemes would have actually worked if they had just waited for Ash and his friends to move away from the area before attempting them; without Ash, TR would have captured tons of Pokémon by now.
I still think the biggest mistake the show made was getting rid of Misty. :-/