Not really sure where to ask this, but I'm afraid to do it anywhere outside of /vp/, so I'm just going to do it here

>What "recent" Pokemon game is the best?
I'm an oldfag who grew up with gen 1 and gen 2. I kinda just grew out of Pokemon after that, with the closest thing as an adult that I've played being SMT/Persona and Siralim. Anyway, I recently got an itch to play Pokemon, so I played Scarlet, and it was alright but it didn't really scratch the itch. So then I played Shield, and I liked that more because it was a format I was more familiar with, but the itch still is not scratched. Maybe this "itch" is just unscratchable now, but I'm willing to give it one more shot, but I don't know which game to play

There are the 3DS games but I don't know if people look back on those fondly or not. There's also Legends Arceus which as I understand it is basically not a Pokemon game anymore really. That seems kinda neat, but I've also read that it's horribly grindy, which I am not down with. I've seen a few videos, and it looks interesting, but if I have to run around catching like 10 of the same Pokemon to advance it sounds like it's not my cup of tea. I don't want to play the Let's Go games because I want to experience new Pokemon, not the same old stuff I remember from when I was a kid. One of my favorite things about Shield is that you can dress your character up. Scarlet left a lot to be desired in that regard, but somehow an earlier game nailed it perfectly. A very bizarre situation to experience retroactively, so if any of the 3DS games let me play dress up with a cute girl, I might like that one. Also, any cute gym leaders or characters are a plus too. I just don't know what to play and I want to scratch an itch that might not go away. I'm also thinking of trying a nuzlocke and/or randomizer. Plz help