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Ignoring that Pokemon's trying to become more linear, not less, that change is horrible. Pokemon, like virtually all JRPGs, are intrinsically tied to their level curves and story progression. A game like Legend of Zelda can let you free roam most of the overworld and let you tackle dungeons in multiple orders because there aren't stat checks in the way and they forgo most of an overarching story in favor of giving you an end goal and filling each area up with an isolated chapter so that progression doesn't alter the context. Pokemon physically cannot allow you to roam the region as you see fit because you're still dealing with wild encounters, trainer battles, etc that all are affected significantly by the level curve, and the way Pokemon's narrative works means they can't just give each area its own mini-story that only loosely connects to the plot if it does at all.
What you're suggesting isn't less linearity, it's a complete rework of the game's basic foundation that has roots with its very genre.
