>>29673524what I really don't understand is the fact that OP's pic basically has "simplification" for the sake of merch as a bad thing
If that were the case, then it's probably intentional because Pokemon merch makes up a lot of what makes Pokemon such a hit
I can understand gen 1 because Red and Green weren't expected to sell as much/not have any merch at all, but for gen 2 onward it was the opposite