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I think a lot of it is a matter of expectations more than objective quality or lack thereof. Pokemon is the biggest media franchise in the world and has reliably printed money for over two decades, so a lot of people think that the games should reflect this. When the fattest cash cow out there puts out mediocre and subpar games that look and play like they were made on a shoestring budget, people wonder why they can't spare a few extra yen to polish things up a little. Meanwhile Kirby, as much as I love the series, has always been one of Nintendo's B-tier properties. No one gets angry or disappointed when the latest Kirby isn't a mind-blowing revolutionary AAA experience, it just needs to be cute and fun enough for a playthrough or two when you're bored. Kirby also doesn't have anywhere near the saturation that Pokemon does, so when it does fanservice, it's not as obnoxious. When Charizard is the most popular pokemon in Galar people roll their eyes because we've already seen Charizard a million times and a lot of people have gotten tired of him. Even the most popular Kirby characters don't have a fraction of the number of appearances as your average Pokemon.
