It is I - a mere Bellsprout, shipping/receiving supervisor for a relatively large box store chain. Our shipments came in today and I've been playing Shield on and off between deliveries. Here are my thoughts:

>Hand holding, while still there, is significantly reduced. Much like pre-3DS days, the handholding basically ends after the initial "meet professor, get starter" routine.
>Graphically a bit underwhelming for normal Switch games, but great by Pokemon standards
>I started with Scorbunny. Has a few fire moves. Some fighting. One new move it has is called Coal Walk, a multi-hit kicking move, fighting type, that has a chance of burning.
>Wooloo's are annoying. Literally jammed down your throat. Walk in tall grass? Wooloo. Near a shop? Wooloo.
>The starters don't evolve. Weird experience. My Scorbunny is Level 22,. No evolution.
>There's a character named Bean that checks in with your gym progress (for sponsorship purposes, works with Chairman Rose). Depending on how well you do in battle, certain shops / places in Galar will sponsor you. If you do poorly, they pull out. I learned this by losing to the 2nd gym leader (a Rock-type leader called Roscoe).
>Some new Pokemon I've encountered: Pilleroll (orange/black caterpillar), Toom (ghost/rock tombstones with face, reminds me of Exeggcute), Macawpra (evolution of Galarian Chatot, which looks like Beethoven), Humbrisk (a penguin), and Soilunge (love this guy, his dex entry says it hides in mud and only comes up to punch passersby; ground/fighting).
>Only a few mentions of Zamazenta, nothing naming it exactly, just mentioning "Oh did you hear...so and so saw The Magenta Knight"
>Wild area is garbage guys but it is fucking huge. From the first time you enter it to the first time you exit it, it's a solid 25 minutes of just walking/running. There's tons to do with camping and stuff. Lots of Pokemon. The Max Raid Battles are tedious and boring. Despite this, easy to lose a few hours here.

Any questions?