>>44154206SS is way more convenient.
XP share makes grinding less of a pain, breeding competitive Pokemon is also way easier, actually, you don't even need the perfect Pokemon in RNG roullete anymore, with a few steps any Pokemon you catch can have competitive stats, that's a giant improvement from other games, breaking unnecessary walls gatekeeping people from playing online.
Besides if you still are lazy to make your own Competitive Pokemon, theres rental teams, so theres no excuse, anyone can at least try the online ladder now.
Everything you said about story and puzzle is subjective.
Puzzles are hit or miss, some people like some people hate it, meaningless to debate there.
Leon is cringe, but most Gym Leaders were amazing and Hop was a surprinsigly good rival that felt actually human.
The story is just your regular Pokemon childish corny stuff that it's personal taste since they are all essentially the same shit, you can't argue about which story is better when they are all essentially the same in the core.
Except USUM was actually more invasive with the obnoxious cutscenes which is objectively worse.
