Story isn't a main element
I'm sick and tired of people saying this when it's not rooted in fact. If what you said is true, then why has Game Freak tried to make story more cinematic with each subsequent Gen post-Gen V? Furthermore, why have people been complaining about the story if it really isn't a main element. Pokemon is a role-playing game that has increasingly added more attention towards its story. So with that, it's no surprise that more players invest themselves into the story.
You keep saying this, but there is a huge difference between you not caring about the story (which you have said multiple times in many other threads) vs. people considering story as a main element to a Pokemon game in addition to GF increasing the scope of their narrative.
and game play improves Gen to Gen on a constant and consistent basis
I also disagree with this notion. If you're
only talking about gimmick mechanics then it's really subjective (for instance, I hate dynamax and consider it broken when you factor in that you can do damage+set-up in one attack, but a VGC player may absolutely love how dynamax plays. Same goes for previous gimmicks like M-Evos and Z-Moves). But the gameplay system assumes a lot about a player. It does a pisspoor job introducing players to underlying stat systems (IVs/EVs in particular), and how to make the most out of that system.
However, if you're talking about stuff like how the battle system is accessible to the casual player, then there is still more to be done. IVs remain an invisible problem that goes against the core tenet of your Pokemon being the friends you take on your journey, to competitive requiring you to mass-breed for superior stats. People will point to Destiny Knot, but it's still tedious due to the amount of time you need to breed a competitive team and you will need to have one 6IV Pokemon to even make the best of the system. Don't even get me started on Hyper Training and how idiotic it is to expect a player to grind to Lv100 to get a modifier that
pretends that it's a 31IV stat across the board.
Furthermore, EVs also continue to be a problem. And this one most of all is completely strange. All GF had to do is keep Super Training from Gen VI and tweak it for faster progression. Pokepelago, and the Job System have been underwhelming attempts at doing the same thing that Super Training did. When the standard to EV train continues to be Power Item + Pokerus + 10 Vitamins (which I remind you, is also not casual-friendly considering that you need to research this information) at a particular stat, then the mechanics haven't done a good job at matching the efficiency as well as being simple for the average player.
In other words, the battle system still expects the casual player to be okay with tedium and hours wasted, and I say this as someone who spent a ton of time on Smogon in Gen IV-onwards. I know that not everyone is going to go do deep research on Pokemon's intricate battle systems like I did, so the focus really should be on simplifying the mechanics to allow for less barrier to entry for the average player. I cannot tell you the number of times I've seen people be discouraged because their in-game mons or shinies are 1000% inferior to what the metagame runs. The only positive thing I can say about SwSh's improvement is the inclusion of Nature Mints, but even that's a half-assed attempt considering that it doesn't remove the original nature entirely and only applies a modifier that corresponds to the nature you want. Nature Mints would have been a godsend for breeding too if it had changed natures entirely.
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