The HGSS Executive's teams sucked. So what if they sucked less?

Proton: Primeape is here because Proton has a hot temper, and the Rainbow Rocket Grunts use it! Golbat seems to be his #1 Pokemon and Zubat is commonly used by Rocket Grunts, Raticate with Guts and Swords Dance is a very underrated Pokemon, and Ariados is more Gen 2 rep

Petrel: I thought while giving him 6 Weezing would be fun, Petrel also using an Electrode from the Rocket Scientists makes some sense. All of his Pokemon would know Explosion, except for one random Weezing with Shadow Ball to trick ghost-types.

Ariana: Her Vileplume is just too iconic, and I was considering evolving her Murkrow since this is for Gen 4, but it would be weird for her to be the only HGSS trainer with a mon past Gen 2. Wobbufet is used by her in Stadium and is a niche reference to Jessie, and her Ninetales just feels like elegance. Ekans is also commonly used by Team Rocket Grunts and is in all her canon teams

Archer: The big bad boss. And why does he only have a Houndoom, Houndour and Koffing? I gave him a Muk instead to complete the squad of 'Rocket Grunts use this poison-type's pre-evolution!' and gave him a Porygon-2 and a Scizor. They're both from Team Rocket's Game Corner, but they're also more Gen 2 representation! I kept the Houndoom, gave him a Magneton to reference the radio waves (and to make sure he doesn't get swept by just 1 water-type this time. Then again, Muk's special defense could already do that), and lastly a Sandslash because Rocket Grunts used it and Sandshrew in the kanto games, and I think Sandslash is neat!

Oh yeah, and they probably used them to dig the secret base.