Playing through RB on 3DS VC and noticing a lot of cool things about Gen 1's game design while studying it, I think it's an ingenious decision to put Moltres in Victory Road on the main path right before the League, and to name it Moltres. As in "tres", which is Spanish for "three", and everyone knows uno, dos, and tres as one, two three.
Moltres itself being on Victory Road as a Level 50 powerful Pokemon gives you a strong Pokemon that given TM support in Fire Blast and Fly/Sky Attack can be a powerful ally for the challenges directly ahead of you if your team needs some extra firepower, thanks to its high stats and whatnot. But because its name is "tres", the attentive player will notice that and realize that tres means three, which also makes them realize there are two other birds out there, and they will want to look for "dos" and "uno". The even more attentive player, and players playing in Japanese, will also look through the Pokedex after capturing it and notice that there's two empty slots between Snorlax and Moltres, which further reinforces the hint that the game is telling you that there are two more powerful Level 50 birds hiding out somewhere off the beaten path.
This is a good way to nudge players to explore places in Kanto they never would have if they followed the direct path, and using Surf they will explore and find the Power Plant and Seafoam Islands, and voila, they get two even better powerful birds: Articuno and Zapdos. A great way to both nudge players towards exploring unknown parts of Kanto and rewarding exploration in doing so. You not only are enticed to find the side dungeons after meeting Moltres, the game rewards you for doing so in the form of two more powerful Pokemon in Zapdos and Articuno. And both are also very good, and if an unsuspecting kid is struggling with Lance's Gyarados and Dragonite, these two birds in particular will be their best friend in dealing with them, Zapdos one-shotting Gyarados with Thunder and Articuno dealing with Dragonite in a single Blizzard.
I think that's a pretty cool way to implement the birds as late-game powerful allies that a player can rely on that also makes it feel rewarding, not just shoved in your face.