>>46232600The primary difference is that those games didn't start as primarily single player focused adventure RPGs where a huge portion of the game is devoted to exploring a new region. No one bitches about Battle Revolution not having a single player region to explore because the point of those games was the multiplayer.
Maybe if Pokemon games stop marketing themselves around the single player content, the story, the characters, and the region, people will stop expecting single player content, but until then, we're going to be holding the games to the standards set by the first 5 or so generations, where there was ample defined single player content to go alongside the multiplayer.
You haven't even brought up the fact that previous games in the series had just about everything available in SWSH except raid battles while still having robust single player exploration and defined single player content like the PWT or Battle Frontier.
We are objectively paying more money for less content. Trying to go "b-but multiplayer though" is a cop out because multiplayer isn't exclusive to recent games.