The initial tekis have no real world application. Then why learn them? They are a crystalization of several ingredients which give future katas their flavor. Th flavor is too complex for the beginning student to savor, so they are broken out to be sampled a little bit at a time in an underwhelming format. This creates a minor difficulty, in that the student does not start by learning a practical kata. Aside from the concept of "block-punch", it's hard to tell exactly what's going on. This difficulty is mitigated by the non-kata areas of training. Those latter areas: kumite, kihon, self defense, etc., provide context. That context engages the student, but that engagement also creates a distraction. The beginner katas are context-free. They focus on the bare minimum to make a kata:

• visualization
• body positioning
• hand, foot and eye coordination

That's really all there is to it. Sure you could add more, but that would take away from the education these katas provide. The developers of these katas were practicing the virtue We shall always discard the bad when they put beginner katas together. Those three concepts are alien, and very difficult to master, but without those three, there is no groundwork for developing a martial artist.