Let's lay this shit out one by one.
Generation 2 cannot be used, because it's pretty much a direct sequel to Generation 1.
Generation 3 had FRLG, continued many old trends that Generation 1 and 2 established, be it the beginning forest, the power plant, or what have you, had old Pokemon in the Pokedex, and so forth. In Emerald, you could catch Mew via event, as well as Lugia and Ho-oh. In Gen 1's remakes, you could catch a Legendary Dog and Lugia & Ho-oh via event. Also, tons of Johto references abound.
Generation 4 changed things up a bit but still stuck to many old traditions, had a (shitty) regional dex which had numerous old Pokemon, shoutouts to Johto, and more. Platinum gave us the Legendary Birds roaming in Sinnoh, a place where they had no business being - even though we'd be able to get them AGAIN a year later. HeartGold and SoulSilver had a shitload of Hoenn references, having a HUGE majority of it's legendaries catchable post-game, having Steven Stone give you Hoenn starters, among other bullshit.
Generation 5, at least it's first half, is as close as you're going to get for a generation without 'references', 'pandering', whatever the fuck. BW2 broke that and went back to the standard procedure, including getting Riolu as early as Flocessy Ranch, the PWT, and other things. Also, catching nearly all Sinnoh legendaries was possible in BW2, plus the eons.
So that leaves us with Generation 6. You have a map that matches the layout of Viridian Forest, a cave named the Unknown Dungeon, the ability to get Kanto starters pretty early, the ability to get a FOURTH set of legendary birds, and that's about it.
Mega Evolutions mean shit and you know it, although if there's any pandering here it's to specific Pokemon. Charizard, Blaziken, Gengar are all among the worst offenders of this shit.
Get off your high horses. Pokemon has been doing this for a while. It doesn't make a region any better or worse, and this is tame compared to other video games.
