This game has a lot of things wrong like the cull and brick issue, yet it is the most fun I have had with the series in many years.

To paint a picture: I always love to fill the dex on my first lp. This causes me to rotate my party and it often makes the game more challenging. I unironically enjoyed x because it was designed around this playstyle and I was able to keep myself on even level range the whole game. I had caught over 120 pokemon before Grants gym (the second gym in the game) and his battle was rough because my highest pokemon was a lvl 23 kirlia.
I am having a very similiar experience in shield. I can swap my mons because of the new portable pc and the game feels like it promotes the dex fill part of the series. I whistled to one wild pokemon that was off route and it attacked me while being 3 levels higher than my current highest pokemon. That kind of shit is fun and amazing route design. In general this game is the perfect mix of random and overworld. Im using hoothoot line from all the possible options as my current flying type because while it is a shitmon, I find its shitty spread designed for sp def tanking fun to use. Air slash at lvl 18? Thats a buff made this gen, making the shitmon usable.

Its just that I slightly feel bad for having fun as others suffer from this game.