>>43737793It's a broad phenomenon, so it's tough to pin down, but I think there are at least two big factors.
First, Game Freak started designing Starter Pokemon less as animals and more as companions and friends to the player starting in Gen 6, which meant humanizing them, which is why the starter quality nosedives there. After Game Freak struck gold with Greninja (thanks also in part to heavy anime pushing and the Smash addition), they thought they'd made a great decision and have continued in that vein ever since. The disastrous results are obvious. I think that philosophy that began with the Starters has crept out as the generations have gone by.
The second is the cancer of the Turner mentality that loves Pokemon based off of inanimate man-made objects. The existence of Magnemite and Voltorb (both bad designs in my opinion) opened the door to an avalanche of absolutely God-awful designs starting in gen 5 with the absurd and creepy Vanilluxe and the brain-dead design of Klingklang. This might not seem to have anything to do with a lack of Kaiju-style Pokemon, but keep in mind that every Dex slot taken up by a piece of worthless garbage like Dhelmise, Alcremie, or Stonjourner is a Dex slot that could be occupied by a real Pokemon with a real design.
As a final note, the existence of the unforgivable Gen 8 fossilmons also carries the disturbing implication that all that Game Freak thinks matters for a Pokemon's design is whether there's a strong idea behind it, not whether or not the end result actually looks appealing in any way, shape, or form. This means that they hate you, and you should always try to keep that in mind.
