Tailmon/Gatomon is an interesting example of the corners that writers can accidentally work themselves into, and the ways that writers can then work themselves back out.
Hikari and Tailmon are unusual for Digimon protagonists. Traditionally, a partner Digimon rests in their Child state, evolving to Adult, Perfect, or Ultimate form as necessary for battle. What makes Tailmon unusual, possibly even unique, is that her natural state is her Adult stage. Her child stage, Salamon, is only seen on rare occasions when she exhausts her strength.
This is an important distinction, since Digimon "power levels" so to speak are often wrapped up in those evolution stages.
In Digimon Adventure, this didn't matter so much. Hikari and Tailmon were introduced very late in the series. By that point, everyone had Perfect evolutions to battle with, and Taichi and Yamato were about to unlock their Ultimate evolutions. Adult-stage fighting was so last season.
But in 02, this presented a conundrum. The show was starting over fresh with new protagonists, new partners, and an escalation reset. Hikari and Takeru would join newcomers Daisuke, Miyako, and Iori and start over from the beginning.
This presented the writers with two separate problems. The first is that, as veterans of the first series, Hikari and Takeru were already comfortable evolving their Digimon to Perfect stage. This was resolved with the Dark Towers and Dark Digivice, which suppress evolution and force the characters to rely on the new Armor Evolution instead.
Blocking normal evolution served to nerf Takeru and Hikari, bringing them down to the new kids' levels - While occasionally lending them opportunities for Angemon and Angewomon to come out and shine, as a teaser of things to come.
But there was one other problem. Since the escalation was starting over, that meant the series would present the kids with Adult-stage Digimon as deadly threats that they needed Armor Evolution to overcome.
But the thing is? Tailmon is an Adult-stage Digimon in her natural state. This distinction suddenly mattered. The show needed all five kids to be running around in terror of Adult Digimon until they get the ability to fight back with Armor Digimon, but there was nothing stopping Tailmon from getting in there and throwing paws.
The solution? One of the very first things the show established is that Tailmon lost the golden ring she wears on her tail. Her "Holy Ring" would go on to have a plot-important role after the Kaiser arc was complete. But the more immediate effect it had was that losing her tail ring cut Tailmon's power dramatically.
This was kind of a new concept. Other Digimon don't work like this. Andromon doesn't turn as weak as a Child Digimon if you knock off his right index finger. But it needed to happen in order to bring Tailmon down to the others' level and stop her from walking all over the challenges that the protagonists would face in the early series.
I've often wondered why Digimon abandoned the concept of a consistent continuity, opting instead to wipe the slate clean and start over fresh with a new world with each series. Looking back now, I think I finally understand.
From the Dark Towers and Digimon Kaiser to the Holy Ring to Armor Evolution, it's kind of amazing just how much of 02's story had to be done the way it was, specifically to prevent Hikari's LVL100 endgame Digimon from effortlessly stomping all comers and nuking the tension. The show had to go out of its way to nerf Patamon and Tailmon, and then go further out of its way to nerf Tailmon some more.
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