Flareon in actual gameplay

Have not used a Flareon for taking out gyms or doing any of the big raids (TTar, Lapras, Snorlax, Machamp, Eggs, etc). I still think it's nice to have a perfect one though.

You don't need it, great to have, recommend saving your dust for legendaries.

FS/OH Flareon is the premier counter to P/DG Blissey due to the newly increased resistances (fire resists fairy). Other than that, you can use it as a neutral glass cannon, though I generally prefer Gengar and Espeon for that purpose as I have those maxed out and Flareon only at L30.

As far as raids go, it can be a good source of neutral dmg in solo L3s or can be useful against Snorlax and Lapras with ice moves.

Unfirtunatelly Fire us still a second hand citizen among types :(. I also have 98 IV one and I was dissapounted when I realized he does not have a premier role justifying powering him up. Btw, I have a lvl 30 96 iv fs/oh Charizard and seceral lvl 30 non optimal Flareons and optimal Arcanines.

Flareon is the best counter for Venusaur, and the best non-bug for Exeggutor (very few people will have 6 bugs with double bug moveset)

I used my Flareon army (4 of them) to do terrific damage to a Venusaur. There were two folks from my team and 3 from the other and we got the damage bonus. I have battled with two of the three from the other team and they really have no idea what they are doing though tbh.

But to answer your question I've been evolving all decent attack IV Eevees with high level since I statred (you've probably seen me post that before). I ended up with 4 FS/OH that were above ATT 13, lv28+, and with a general IV range of around 78%. I have no idea what the rarity of Eevee is in your area but I imagine I spent less on my army than you will on your one. Especially since I'm drowning in Eevee candy here ( I'm still over 1100 even with all of these evos).

If this isn't really an option then I would not advise against powering one. They are strong and will do good damage. But I do wonder how it will compare to legendaries with fire in the future if they are not as hard to get as we may be thinking.

I powered up mine and I wouldn't do it again, for what it's worth.