>>48660318It being a runtime flag means they could sell the other version as a feature, instead of having to recompile everything and have the end user download everything twice.
They probably could've even put the dual pack on the same cartridge.
Don't shit on good design just because they have shitty business practices.
The two versions gimmick has pretty much always been a way to get more money anyways. Animal crossing had different item tables (at least wild world did) that was just generated randomly when you booted up the game and pokemon could do the same thing, maybe even tying it to the starter choice.