Yamcha not only looked awesome first, but he is genuinely one of the strongest human characters in the entire series. In his first fights with Goku he even clearly has the upper hand. It’s just that the series is also infamous for the rapid power creep and starts rolling in all kinds of non-human monstrosities and alien races that his strength as a mere human is dwarved in comparison.
Yamcha not only looked awesome first, but he is genuinely one of the strongest human characters in the entire series. In his first fights with Goku he even clearly has the upper hand. It’s just that the series is also infamous for the rapid power creep and starts rolling in all kinds of non-human monstrosities and alien races that his strength as a mere human is dwarved in comparison.
He’s definitely strong, Tien and Krillin just never seemed all that far behind the aliens comparatively.