>>56419803Chiming in as a Hoennchad to confirm all you said is true, I bow to Johto and Crystal.
Emerald is a funny case, because I'd guess the main thing that makes it so superior to RS or so good in general is the Frontier. Now, I love the Frontier, I love grinding in rpgs and optimizing shit, I love EV training, and I dont mind the challenge even with the bs rng. I think it's a wonderful feature that gives you something to do, in-game, single player, with optimized mons. I think the different facilities gimmicks are awesome for variety and encouraging different approaches/building specialized teams. A challenge that actually utilizes the deep mechanics of the game to overcome. That's great. Truth is, the majority of people do not have the patience, time, or determination to train a team and conquer it. Yet everyone dicksucks Emerald. Meaning loads of these people are glazing a game for having a feature they actually don't enjoy, and may actively hate if they tried it for real. They're glazing it for the idea alone of the Frontier, not for what it is.
I'd say if I just want a regular playthrough of the campaign and stop at Hall of Fame, Hoenn is bottom tier, and if I want post-game, RS is bottom tier, if I want contests, I won't pick Emerald. If I want Gen 3 Battle Frontier the most ridiculous Pokedex completion in the series, Emerald.