I thought it was an exaggeration from hardcore Pokemon players, but it was the 100% truth.

>make character and start
>every npc stops my progress dead in its tracks to talk to me about bullshit I already know
>given a starter (fire, water, or grass)
>attempt to progress
>random hiker stops me and tells me to GO BACK AND TALK TO MY MOM
>try to ignore him
>he stops me again
>wade through more npc stoppages and dialogue to get to the forest past the first route
>instantly encounter a fire monkey pokemon
>end up encountering a water monkey and a grass monkey as well
>"why did I even pick a starter again?"
>go into the pokemon school
>literally tells you nothing because your friends already explained every mechanic in forced tutorials
>beat the first gym easily with my fire monkey pokemon and grass starter
>woman gives me Exp Share which levels ALL my pokemon without even having to make them fight AFTER THE FIRST GYM
>decide to use my TM on my weedle after careful consideration (when it becomes a beedrill)
>realize that TMs are infinite

This isn't even about difficulty, it's about stripping away all that was special about Pokemon.

You can fill up your Pokedex by literally only using a single Pokemon to level everyone else at an even rate. The starters are made useless the moment you exit the starting town. There's no reason to even carefully decide which Pokemon gets a TM anymore. No reason to explore either, since the game will stop you and force you to go and pick up a cool item instead of rewarding players who visit all buildings.

Ironically, despite having more NPCs and "friends" talking to you than ever before, the game is the most soulless Pokemon game to date.