Quoted By:
While it can be argued that new protag designs are gaudy, or that one design is better than the other one thing is certain. Game Freak's mindset for designing protagonists hasn't changed at all.
All protagonists use at most 5-6 colors of the same shade, with the color choices being placed in a way where everything pops without looking too outlandish. For example, take a look at Rosa, the latest 2D protagonist. She uses a combination of 6 colors (white, pink, yellow, black, brown, and cyan), and her clothing is colored in a way where nothing blends together. For example, her sleeves are cyan, so that it doesn't blend with her bag, and her bag straps and body are black and pink, respectively, so that they stand out. Her skirt is yellow rather than pink or cyan so that it stands out from her shirt, bag, and tights.
Other characters also follow the same formula. May and Ethan both use a small color palette, and each article of clothing is divided in a way where everything stands out. All of these are deliberate choices, and the Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon protagonists are no different. Mizuki's redesign uses six colors (orange, red, green, white, yellow and black), and none of these colors overlap in a way where a certain article of clothing blends.
This is also why most custom XY and SM characters are poorly designed. Most use too few colors to be as "aesthetic" as possible, not realizing that everything blends and makes a boring design, or uses so many that the design becomes a mess of colors. Protagonists are balanced so that they stand out enough to be unique (unlike an NPC), but not to the point where it becomes an eyesore.
