You know, I'll admit that SV are kinda dogshit due to the terrible state they're in and the fact that they haven't, and won't be fixed, but I still feel way better about the series than I think I did even during gen 7.
And I'll fully admit that USUM and even SM are better games than SV but honestly? The free form exploration aspect that was most present in the early games just came flooding back to the series all at once, and that's a fucking huge deal for someone like me. I REALLY missed it. I've heard a lot of people complain about Paldea lacking map design and while I won't call them wrong because I'm sure they have their reasons for thinking that, personally I couldn't stop noticing specific paths and discoveries that I felt like the developers had guided me to with the map design. I really enjoyed my time exploring the region. I was overleveled for a couple gyms, sure, but one of them only about 5 levels, and I faced pretty much every other challenge at, or below their level. Overall it was a fuckhuge region that I spent legitimately 80 hours in before I beat the game.

Tldr SV suck but finally get the thing I care most about just right so I actually kinda feel hopeful about the direction of the series for once. Am hyped for the DLC