>>46427149Speaking as a Pokégirl fag, it doesn't suit the bottom line. Pokémon is successful because of the property, the trainers are a bonus rather than the selling point.
Even if you're arguing it can be a battle and trading game in that format, it's glancing over the labor involved to provide however number of illustrations and branching player choices can work in that visual style because one of the advantages of 3D graphics is that they're modular. 2D images can be manipulated in layers but the art has to be made to work that way so you may get limited expressions or character interactions in that case.
Don't assume that just because more people can work in 2D means that it's not labor intensive. You can train more people to animate a 3D model than get a group of illustrators and dot graphics artists to be consistent in design.
