>>46653240Probably had to do with the research they did for Hawaii. That place is big on ecology since it has a ton of both endemic and endangered species that have had to contend with a lot of human interactions. You can see other aspects of this like the yungoose an rattata relationship and ultra beasts being based on invasive species to Hawaii/ concepts of invasive species.
There's also a lot of interactivity in the pokedex to support the whole ecology thing too. Like bulbapedia had enough dex entries to make a who eats who chart in their pokemon food section.
https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon_food#Pok.C3.A9mon_eating_other_Pok.C3.A9monThere's also a lot on how pokemon interact with each other and with people in Alola. The latter isn't necessarily new since the pokedex always went into how people viewed pokemon, but it was nice with everything else. It was probably helped by Alola feeling homelier and more remote as a region.