There's something nice about Melemele that I don't get from the rest of Alola - I think it might be related to how dense it is? Sure, in terms of physical space it's even smaller than Poni and its Pokedex is in middle place when it comes to how many mons are available, but it's got the highest amount of stuff you can do after completing all of its trials, even if some of those things take a while to unlock. The Battle Buffet's probably the most reliable place to grind in the game.

The routes are nice and big with lots of places to explore in them such as Melemele Sea, Melemele Meadow and the cave that connects it to Kala'e Bay - Alola's Route 1 is even the second biggest in the series; Iki Town's got the most NPC houses of any of the region's residential areas, you can find wild Pokemon all over Hau'oli City, Ilima has you fight him before you can take on his trial, which requires you to also fight a Skull Grunt in the process, and the bullshit with encounter rates isn't anywhere as bad on Melemele as it is on the other islands.

But I just can't find the same level of satisfaction with the other islands. Maybe it's cockteases like the Brooklet Hill Cave, Wela Volcano Park, the Hano golf course or Blush Mountain's power plant; Poni's lackluster atmosphere outside of Vast Poni Canyon, the amount of trainers whose movepools and amount of Pokemon are inexcusable for the point of the game you encounter them, the scarce population and empty routes, or trying to find certain Pokemon with shitty encounter rates. It feels like Game Freak dropped the ball after Melemele.