[RegulatorCountry]

Of what use were grossly malformed fins for millions of years, before turning into legs? Were they just flopping around in the shallows mating only with other malformed fish? Wouldn’t this situation equate to being very unfit from an evolutionary standpoint, entirely too exposed to prey, being neither able to swim or walk effectively?

[BroJoeK]

RegulatorCountry: "Of what use were grossly malformed fins for millions of years, before turning into legs?"

There are many living and fossil examples of walking fish, including the mud skipper spectacularly shown in post #16 above.

Evolution theory tells us that every modification does not have to be "perfect" to be accepted by natural selection.
It only has to be good enough and better than other alternatives.
In the case of fish with primitive "legs", anything which helped them scramble across wet ground in search of food, or to escape predators, could become a transition form for future evolution.