>>38893267My personal stance: Totems were better than Gym Leaders, but the Trials themselves were generally not as good as Gym puzzles (especially the ones from Generations III through V).
I did still quite like the Lush Jungle Trial (specifically SM, not the revised version in USUM), and I guess Verdant Cavern and Thrifty Megamart were at least passable, but I definitely prefer the dungeon style of Gyms (and the fact that there were Trainers throughout rather than purely the few Pokémon that were strictly part of the task) for the most part.
My ideal would be for Trials to be set in more Gym-esque dungeons where navigation itself is a challenge - so you get everything Gyms do well, but it still culminates in a Totem rather than a Gym Leader.
Unfortunately, if the leaks are any indication,
it looks like we're getting the exact opposite of that - Trial-esque challenges to earn the right to challenge Gym Leaders - which is sort of my worst case scenario, but a) it's possible that the tasks in question will be handled better or in more interesting settings than SM's and b) the rest of SwSh unironically looks pretty good to me, so I definitely won't let that alone turn me off completely. We'll see how it goes!
