Now that the dust has settled and I've been able to thoroughly experience this game, here's my overall feelings:

The good
>wild Pokémon actually roaming in the wild is cool
>pokemon being able to follow you again
>open world is a cool idea

The bad
>the open world is absolutely horrendous in execution. Almost always overleveled. Even if I go to the hard places first, it just makes every subsequent area easier. Nothing feels challenging, I'm just checking off each new area by spamming A. Needed level scaling or SOMETHING to make it not a joke.
>overall, the actual world is bland and boring. There's a few interesting looking areas, but the lack of story or anything interesting makes them unmemorable. Basically just feels like a giant safari zone.
>the map system is god awful, literally one of the worst in video game history. Always rotating and disorienting me, can't zoom out and then zoom into a different area, always zooms into where you are.
>the cities are completely unmemorable. Unlike other games that had secret items incentivizing exploration, every item you'll ever need can be found randomly or just bought, making exploring cities pointless. Just go to the gym and leave.
>finding fully evolved non-shit Pokémon in the wild is absolutely disgusting and makes all pre evolutions or the concept of raising your team feel completely pointless.
>team star bases suck ass, and all the bosses' ace being the same stupid truck is boring and lame
>the entire side quest with going to classes is actually the worst thing ever. Was just mashing A for like an hour.
>can't rebattle elite 4
>no national dex
>can't turn off exp share
>can't search for specific Pokémon you want to trade like in XY
>all the trainer battles suck, few have more than one Pokémon.
>the gym challenges were fucking stupid
And a fuckton of other things

Overall, these games have some good, but also a lot of bad
Pokémon was better in the DS era