Genders were a mistake.
Now, I know that sounds stupid, but hear me out.
Back in the day Pokemon were Pocket MONSTERS, not animals. The only ones that were gendered were the Nidorans because they were very close to shrew-like animals. Their theme was sexual dimorphism. Now, not only does every other species have that, they're also all reduced to being mere animals.
Similarly, the presence of genders makes breeding a necessary mechanic to "explain" where Pokemon are born from. Breeding itself, whilst not a bad idea, makes Pokemon less special - back in the day, you used to be happy to find ANY rare Pokemon. Now, unless it has the right nature, the right ability, the right EVs or even in some cases the correct gender, it's literally unusable. It seems like a given thing that gender and breeding should be there simply because they've been a part of the franchise for so long, but...really? These two mechanics are causing some of the biggest problems right now. Don't get rid of breeding, but put a limit on how many per species that can be bred each day. Randomize IVs so that eugenics is unneeded. Drop genders for species that it's not relevant for. I mean really, does anyone care that female Pikachu have a heart shape on their tail? No. No one fucking cares, Gamefreak.
In fact, I challenge anyone to name even one gen 4-style sexual dimorphism in a species introduced after that generation - i.e. the male has slightly longer antennae; the female has an extra lump. No, they stopped doing that shit because it was so low-energy and boring.
