I mean, you don't need to be a competitive player to appreciate the usefulness of moves like Swords Dance or Nasty Plot, those are literally the opposite of wasting time. Just one turn invested in boosting and Pokémon with good speed and coverage can single-handedly swep entire in-game teams. Same for dealing with Pokémon that raise their defenses, set-up walls or have a move to cripple you, pure attacking isn't allways the fastest way to win.