When it comes to my in game team I don't ever ditch my starter, even if it's a weak link in my team. It just doesn't seem right to me. On the other hand there are competitive battles, when I start doing wifi and such I don't use my starter. Sacrifices have to be made for competitive effectiveness. That being said, sometimes I breed my starters and use the offspring competively. In the fourth gen infernape was one of my favorite ou pokemon while venasaur was one of my favorite uu pokemon.