>>53016383>Cyndaquil being picked for a Legends starter>Legends giving evos and forms to many Gen 2 Pokemon >Johto dex having high survival in Paldea (currently, Johto has a higher percentage of survivors than Kanto despite Johto being "Kanto's DLC")>Paldea giving many more Gen2 Pokemon evolutions which are not only decently strong, but also allowed the originals to be decently strong in their own right due to evoilite >5 paradoxes forms being Gen 2 Pokemon, with the two strongest ones (Mane and Bundle) being derivatives of long neglected Gen2 Pokemon >The Sunflora quest >Jasmine getting a new dress in BDSP (I just realized she's the only character that got new clothes in BDSP despite only being in a side event and not even being from Sinnoh) If Game Freak/TPC ever hated Johto, they don't anymore. And most of the evidence for Johto being hated in the first place can be chalked up to early installment weirdness and being compared to Kanto. It just happened to be born too early to benefit from the privileges new regions and Pokemon get, but not being having access to the Kanto Golden Parachute the Gen 1 has.
The only blatant evidence of Johto ever being hated was the starters getting skipped over for Megas (which are long gone outside of spinoffs as far as we know), and that one salty programmer who gave Hisuain Typhlosion Frisk when every other other Legends Pokemon got amazing abilities .
>>53016617they were referring to love from Game Freak and TPC