Disregarding the performance issues, bad graphics, etc., Scavio is a disappointing entry to the series. Once you get past the first few hours of story it becomes dull and repetitive. The world you're exploring is light on details; the world design casts a wide net without going very deep into any actual substance. Cities and towns are minimal with no interiors. There are very few NPCs, none of whom are really doing anything. It seems like students outnumber workers 10 to 1, meanwhile 90% of the industry in Paldea appears to revolve around sandwiches. And where the hell is all the infrastructure? Everything is connected by dirt roads. Unova had bridges and tarmac roads with cars and trucks driving on them. Paldea does not feel "lived in", not even a little bit.
I do not feel like I am exploring the entirety of the Iberian peninsula, I feel like I am going for a hike in a very large low-res park.
The transition from 2D to 3D has been a disaster for these games. 3D models have sucked the life out of the Pokémon designs. Game Freak has incredibly talented 2D artists whose work now goes into menu sprites rather than the real deal. Imagine if GF still made 2D games but with the resources and budget of a real AAA studio. They could massively increase the scope of their games while maintaining a timeless visual style. Sadly the market has fallen for the open world meme. The consensus seems to be that it's actually extremely fun to run around in 20km2 of empty, uninhabited space for 60 hours. Even the strongest criticism is balanced with the "promising direction the game design is taking" or whatever. There are no side stories/quests, no characters who aren't part of the main story, there is nothing to explore beyond empty landscape. This is not Pokémon Morrowind. This is a badly coded Unity asset flip with a bunch of random enemy spawn nodes copy/pasted around the place. The ugliest, most amateur Essentials fangame has more heart than this.