>>50410294They changed it because they thought it was a bad idea to have requirements to use a Pokémon that was a requirement. You can see over time how the barrier for acquisition just shrunk.
In Gen III and DPPt, you had to manually unlock Mystery Gift with a special phrase. In HGSS, it automatically unlocks once you get the Pokédex. In Gen V onward, it's always unlocked. While distribution events always existed, actual in-game events to obtain the Pokémon did too.
>Crystal: GS Ball and Celebi at Ilex Forest>RS: Latios/Latias on Southern Island with an e-Reader and Eon Ticket card or mixing records with someone who has used one>FRLG: Ho-Oh and Lugia on Navel Rock, Deoxys on Birth Island>Emerald: Southern Island, Navel Rock, Birth Island, and Mew on Faraway Island>DP: Darkrai on Newmoon Island, Shaymin at the Flower Paradise, Arceus at the Hall of Origin>Platinum: Newmoon Island, Flower Paradise, Hall of Origin, the three Regi rooms from the event Regigigas, the Gracidea from the event Shaymin, and Rotom's Formes at the Galactic Eterna Building>HGSS: Spiky-eared Pichu in Ilex Forest, Giovanni time travel event, Latios/Latias in Pewter City, Sinjoh Ruins events>BW: Victini on Liberty Island, Keldeo/Meloetta/Genesect are all straight-up distributions that unlock minor thingsSome of these required trading events from a previous game. But they figured it's more effective advertising to just straight give the player the Pokémon rather than having requirements that ask them to put in a special word sequence, beat the game, and go to a late game area to try and catch a high level Pokémon with an extremely low catch rate.
