Another part of it is that the notion that Game Freak needs to be sidelined only reached a fever pitch "recently", when their games started retailing for home console prices.
As
>>48647535 rightly says Nintendo isn't the sole IP owner; how do we know ILCA wasn't Game Freak decision? Beyond that, we know Pokemon's role in the Nintendo economy is to print easy money. Remember the last time we got "catch 'em all" Pokemon games on console? For all their merits, they weren't full fat Pokemon journeys nor the spectacles Pokemon-on-console deserved back than either, and Stadium needed what amounted to a demo game before it reached its height too.
>>48647443I would be quite surprised if the Nintendo long-timers weren't sick of ALL of their mainstays at this point, if only for the repetition. Granted some of those mainstays get to change it up a lot more than Pokemon does.
