>>35733836All of Gen 2 is honorary Gen 1.
Gen 2 hit North America just a couple years after gen 1, and so most fans of the game weren't burnt out on the franchise/were still fairly young and unbound by cynicism. Gen 2 is also the most visually similar to the first 151 Pokémon, the games came out for (practically) the same console (and so the sprites/designs had similar limitations), etc.