>>49228081dex cuts, the expectation that hardware stronger than the 3DS would lead to more good features. Instead, things somehow started going in reverse with removing more things than the 3DS era already had done. You could argue that before the Switch era, people would buy these games no matter what. But the Switch era REALLY proved that point after Swooshi happened. We'll be lucky to ever see the design standards that were set in gens 6 or 7 return in the next decade let alone ever see the design standards set during gens 3 through 5.
I think the new pattern for the next decade will be 1 mainline-ish game where it's "main story + new way to find/catch Pokémon + Battle Tower = satisfactory game" plus one spin-off title (advertised as a "mainline" title) that plays similarly to a mainline title in some respects featuring more experimental gameplay features
