Is not because the games, but because of the community online erupting into an even more massive one.
Showdown rose in popularity, trading and online play even more common due to PSS, numbers of players rose notably and there was lots more fanart and fan content compared to earlier generations.
Hate on the games but for fucks sake do not shit on the community because it was so good back then. We had shit like Brennan Williams beating the shit out of /vp/ metawhores in a random thread with his Honchkrow.