>>30545107It's partly nostalgia, similar reason as to why people are Genwunners. Red was the first, and for a while he really was the best storywise. For a lot of kids, him being in Mt. Silver came as a surprise. Finding the previous protagonist who represented you using all the starters and being the highest level trainer ever, was one of the hypest moments in the series.
A lot of it is no longer true because the series moved on, but at the time that shit was mind blowing.
