>>48402778gen 3-5 was when this franchise was at its most stagnant and was just lazily reskinning the formula of the gameboy games.
gen 6 finally added >4 direction movement and proper non-shit animations.
gen 7 finally tried at actually having well balanced unique bosses and a story where they actually put effort into the writing.
gen 8 finally added overworld encounters, more wide open spaces, and a controllable camera.
Legends alone is doing more to move the franchise forward than the past 20 years of pokemon games. By having catching involve actual gameplay instead of clicking through fucking menus.