Keep in mind that, despite the perma rain loss, Crawdaunt has been given at least 3 buffs: the overmentioned two, Crabhammer and Knock Off, are brutal. Crawdaunt has a 200 BP water move that lands frequent critical hits and a 195 BP dark move with an incredible secondary effect. Not a lot of Pokemon can be proud of such a brutal output. Crawdaunt's wallbreaking power is undeniable.
The third buff is just icing on the cake: Aqua Jet. The amount of 2HKOes that the combination of STAB move of choice+Aqua Jet nets are just unbelieveable. Given the chance, Crawdaunt can destroy teams by himself alone. DD is such a great move, I'm surprised it is so underestimated. Just run Adamant and enough speed to outrun uninvested-neutral neture base 80 speed (Mandy tier), invest max in attack and the rest in bulk, and DD when given the chance. You won't outspeed fully invested higher speed tiers, but you'll sit at a much more confortable speed and the increase in power is just great. Moreover, with Aqua Jet, Crawdaunt is allowed to somewhat check some top threats, like Landorus Incarnate, Excadrill, basically everithing weak to water.
Although Craw has some serious issue (sub par bulk even when invested, awful speed, easily revenge killed by faster priority users even when using Aqua Jet... and dkkc19 I completely agree with you, LO recoil just kills him), it's a very good Poke, and perfectly OU viable imho.
The third buff is just icing on the cake: Aqua Jet. The amount of 2HKOes that the combination of STAB move of choice+Aqua Jet nets are just unbelieveable. Given the chance, Crawdaunt can destroy teams by himself alone. DD is such a great move, I'm surprised it is so underestimated. Just run Adamant and enough speed to outrun uninvested-neutral neture base 80 speed (Mandy tier), invest max in attack and the rest in bulk, and DD when given the chance. You won't outspeed fully invested higher speed tiers, but you'll sit at a much more confortable speed and the increase in power is just great. Moreover, with Aqua Jet, Crawdaunt is allowed to somewhat check some top threats, like Landorus Incarnate, Excadrill, basically everithing weak to water.
Although Craw has some serious issue (sub par bulk even when invested, awful speed, easily revenge killed by faster priority users even when using Aqua Jet... and dkkc19 I completely agree with you, LO recoil just kills him), it's a very good Poke, and perfectly OU viable imho.