>>54133258There's 2 major changes I would do to gyms and the Elite 4 mostly.
First, instead of type themes, make the leaders able to theme around anything. A chef gym leader could have a bunch of food mons of different types. A yoga teacher leader could have a bunch of flexible mons and a fire type for hot yoga. I think this change alone would add a lot of variety to team building.
The second point is to make the gym challenges more like battle facilities. Have them contain their own level cap, and you're only allowed to bring in 3-4 Pokemon and limited items, and optional heals between battles. That way you're way more unlikely to steamroll a gym with one beefy Pokemon, but you could fully evolve outside of the gym to get better teams. The gyms could incorporate their own facility gimmicks from there, like puzzles over battles or special gimmicks like a rental facility that lets you adopt the Pokemon that came with you at the end. I like the approach of gen 7 and 9 diverging from just trainer hallways and would do more of that.
