What exactly is the origin of gamefreak's belief that the pokemon games are too challenging for kids? The worldwide success of plenty of relatively challenging games like fortnite, counterstrike, lol, and pubg with younger audiences is proof that there are plenty of kids out there that can appreciate and push through challenge.
This quote from merrick seems to contest that its based on research of some sort, but how would said research even be tracked? Pokemon games aren't always online, there was no survey feature, and the games are too long to have people play through in a controlled environment, so I don't see how they would feasibly collect this data.
Is it really just a fabrication to not put in effort that makes their company more appealing to investors than if they just said they didn't feel like making a good game?