>>50254084BW > RB > SM > E > Plat > GS = HGSS > BW2 > RS > Crys > FRLG > USUM > PLA > DP = BDSP > XY > ORAS > SwSh
not counting spin-offs because PMD EOS and Rangers Almia would mog every single mainline save for maybe BW if you really stretched it, and it's not even close
don't really know where to put Yellow because I have never played it and as far as I know the only changes are Jessie and James existing, so I excluded it and LGPE for that reason (I have no idea what their plots are)
now for some reasoning
erhem
not a single plot after SM is "good"
RB has a shit ton of environmental storytelling that I can really appreciate, and I love how its plot is literally just "bad man steal pokemon go fuck him up" aside from your rival being champion (which was also a really good twist)- it doesn't get in your way, it's enjoyable to play through, and it's narratively cohesive
GS still has some of that environmental stuff, but Team Rocket are a lot more of an invasive nuisance with how they fuck up Lake Rage and the Radio Tower and such, it's annoying and obviously desperate (which makes sense but just makes the story come off as an annoying chore in-game), but it thankfully isn't very relevant outside of some stuff past Ecruteak (which is where I think the game falls off anyways) and slowpoke well (Crystal just added Eusine who is another annoying nuisance so I put it under GS lol)
RSE have stupid plots but they don't get in your way enough to be irritating like GSC, in RS the antics of the two leaders are copy-paste but in Emerald they're a lot more comically insane since they actually have characterization so I placed Emerald above the other two for that
1/who knows how long I need to get this out