>>13020765Yes, but GameFreak would still be making games.
Whether or not those games would be fun are another matter. Click Medic despite its neat artwork sucked a lot of ass, so it's hard to say if GameFreak would have pushed themselves to improve without Pokémon.
Plus I'm not sure if we'd see such talent like Ohmura and Eo among their ranks let alone Sugimori's artwork improving.
Part of the reason the Gen 1 nostalgia movement is even a thing is because fans get protective of the things they like when change occurs. Just look at the people claiming new installments and reboots of a series "raped" their childhood because it was different from how they left it.
Pokémon as a franchise is still rooted from a videogame and it couldn't reach its potential if it didn't change and progress over the years tweaking with its formula until it's finely tuned like many other videogame properties Nintendo owns/controls.
It's best not to hold back history over some rose-colored memories.
