>>48744400Typically I play with a team of 6 and try to keep my team's levels even, only grinding if necessary to level up a new Pokemon.
Every game with a toggleable, party-wide EXP Share (XY/ORAS/SM/USUM) I have played on and off with for a whole playthrough.
Pokemon games have never been "hard" even as a kid, but since XY (and maybe even BW a bit) the games have increasingly handheld the player, with EXP Share being one of the more noticeable problems. In every playthrough where I used the EXP Share, every single one of my party was overleveled without grinding. The only fight in the maingame across those three games to give me any trouble was Ultra Necrozma.
If your solution is to swap out more Pokemon, you're missing the point. Herbs, swapping out regularly, and skipping trainers are methods in SPITE of the game's mechanics, not with them. This entire autistic debate wouldn't be happening if they just programmed in a simple binary on/off value. YOU personally may not like grinding, and that's fine, but me and many others would prefer to have a choice, as well as having time to bond with our Pokemon as we raise them.
It's not just an EXP problem either. NPCs are constantly shoving directions, advice, and revives in our faces via in-engine cutscenes. ORAS is the most noticeable with this because you can directly compare it to a previous game where the player was allowed to explore mostly uncoddled. Routes, caves, and dungeons are also so simplified it's hard to believe anyone could possibly get lost, with SWSH being the worst offender.
>TLDR; Pokemon was never hard but it's been increasingly and insultingly easier in the past decade 