>>54543341I don't think it's impossible to have a sense of progression in singleplayer without forcing Pokémon to be shit in PvP. Evolutions, Level ups, and EVs could all achieve that with the right execution.
Your rant did remind of an old maybe unpopular idea I had though. I've considered in the past that the mainline games should be split into two series: One that's focused on being singleplayer RPGs, and one that's focused on multiplayer PvE. The former would be like older mainline games where the focus was almost exclusively on the single-player experience, while the latter would be like an official version of Showdown but with Battle Revolution style audiovisuals.
>>54544684Open World would be the ideal structure for singleplayer Pokémon if done right, since the games are all about going on your own adventure. The problem is that Pokémon games have a short development cycle and the people developing it are Gamefreak.