I like gens 1 and 2. Gen 3 was okay but it introduced legendary Pokemon being a focus of the plot and not being an optional subplot. Gens 4 and 5 took everything bad from gen 3 and expanded on it, shoving more legendary and PVE plots down your throat whether you cared about them or not.

Gen 6 was missing content and just a terrible game overall with one of the worst gimmicks ever created, dynamax being the only thing worse. Gen 7 had cute girls and a nice dex but overall was just boring and slow paced, the ultra beasts are kinda coo but hidden power z-moves and giving coverage to mons that shouldn't have it didn't make sense.

Gen 8 (SwSh, Pokemon Snap, Unite, PLA) and Gen 9 are irredeemable garbage with tons of Pokemon and features missing. They're somehow even worse than anything in gens 1-7.