>why doesn't gamefreak make the rivals jerks anymore
Because you are the jerk rival now. You spend the entire game stomping all over good kids hopes and dreams, and you don't even have the decency to speak to them. You knock them down, give them the cold shoulder, and walk away with a smile. You are worse than the jerk rivals of the past. Blue and Silver grew and changed. You have spent the last decade crushing your rivals, leaving them a broken mess, and then you hop off to the next region to do it again.