There is no defense for this. There is no defense for this piss poor showing of a game. I am angry. I will shout and scream and tell GameFreak they're a garbage incompetent developer, because from what I've seen, they are.
It's not so much that GameFreak are incompetent but that they are rushed. They are only given 2-3 years to make a new Pokemon game. While also having to work on remakes and upgraded versions at the same time.
Now GameFreak isn't completely blameless. They do own a third of TPC, and for whatever reason have remained a small studio despite the fact they manage a billion dollar franchise that sells in the millions.
You'd think if they wanted a longer development time and more employees Nintendo would let them? Unless Nintendo is just being greed using the insane profit margins of Pokémon to pad their financial numbers?