You can't look at Gen 6 and Gen 7 and agree that the games are not losing their touch. The same recycled formula has gotten old, but people will defend it for little reason other than tradition. The inclusion of Megas, Z Moves, and the revamp of the Gym system has proven that Gamefreak is aware, but their solutions aren't hitting home and come off as forced. Honestly, at this point, it shouldn't surprise anyone if they'd like to experiment with alternative battling options, especially when one is more akin to the anime. There are definitely ways to incorporate a more "involved" battling system to the game. Definitely a way for them to create a sense of actually being in a Pokemon battle, and disagreeing with that statement in this day and age is just lying to yourself. It'd be a shame that, in 2018, Gamefreak releases a slow paced, turn based RPG, with an ever decreasing "new" roster, inconsistent game performance, toss on an additional $20 price tag, and CTRL+C/V for an alternative colored title. That doesn't show me that they care. It says they don't want to release the best Pokemon experience to date, they want to release Pokemon for the Switch. It won't be the best Pokemon game of all time. It won't be a contender for Game of the Year. It'll be Pokemon on the Switch, people will buy it and the alternate version, despite the $40 bump for the both of them, play it for a while, and return to Showdown because "its just easier". And for something that is supposed to be the most anticipated game of the year, thats just sad.

You should expect change, they've already done it to the recent games in one way or another, its only a matter of time before they change it dramatically.