>>53965529>ruleset and method>spirit of PokemonEvery generation that's passed, that ruleset and method has changed, and the spirit of Pokemon you describe has degraded exponentially with each iteration.
Gens 1-4 the barrier for entry dwindled slowly, but it was still gradual. Gen 5 and beyond, you could tell the quality started dipping beyond salvation.
Most people from gens 1-3 can list off favorites from those gens, but from 4 and onward, that list of potential favorites starts bottoming out severely. You can unironically make a case study out of how literally nothing from Gen 9 is salvagable using only people who have been around for that long.