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Pokemon didn't really have an identity back then yet. They were still figuring out what to do. That's a good thing in that there was a lot of open room for creativity, but also bad in that it was somewhat disorganized and all over the place. It's the opposite problem that Pokemon has now which is that it's too formulaic.
The real peak was Gen III with the soft reboot in Hoenn plus the Kanto remakes, and it was maintained throughout the DS era with a few hiccups here and there basically through sticking to the Gen III formula.
Then GF was forced to push the franchise into 3D and their game crafting skills hit a reset button.
