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I think what a lot of people ignore is that once transfer from Gen 7 to 8 is done, depending on the type of player you are, you could do just fine with the free version.
If you don't expect to bring a large amount over, just a few sets of trained Pokemon or specific legendaries, you can do that with a one month sub and then never have to care again. When you transfer from Sword/Shield to whatever game comes next, you can just do so in batches of 30 with a free account. Or hell, this will already be true for Let's Go. Transfer from Let's Go to Sword/Shield can be done without ever paying a subscription.
That makes this the first genuinely free transfer method - when transferring between Switch games only anyway.
The only issue is if you 1) specifically want to keep a living dex in one place or 2) expect to want to regularly transfer for specific moveset cases (eg Roost on Hydreigon which isn't possible in Gen 8 but is in previous gens).
