Jeez I wish they wouldn't do this early in the week... Okay, just going to give my thoughts on the MAJOR reveal today:
You Cannot Transfer Pokemon That Aren't Part Of The Galar Pokedex
I have many thoughts on this, so I apologize if I ramble on or this sounds disjointed. I just want to get my thoughts in before I'm 10 pages behind and it's still active in everyone's mind.
Preparing For The Future: Well, here's probably a controversial opinion: I kind of agree with this. HERE ME OUT! As Masuda pointed out, every gen the amount of Pokemon is ever increasing and, while right now it's not a problem, at some point in the future we could get to a point where programming all the Pokemon into the game would either be a huge time sink or maybe cause physical limitations. I see this as an experiment on GF's part to see if they can start just doing regional dex Pokemon only to give them more time to spend elsewhere and thus make a more fulfilling game with a rich story and full of mechanics we can get hours of play from. Theoretically, that is, because here's the thing about that... I question GF's capability of doing that. If this is the path GF wants to take, in my opinion here are the hurdles they're going to need to jump over:
1. Cycle Out Pokemon: If they want to do this they can no longer be willy-nilly with what Pokemon they include or just constantly pick favorites. Most of the Pokemon who appear in the Galar dex should then not be in Gen IX, rather it would be mostly filled with Pokemon that didn't appear in Galar. Pretty much a Pokemon shouldn't be absent for more than two generations, and unless there's a good reason a Pokemon probably shouldn't make consecutive appearances for more than two. They may even need to start planning future Pokedexs in advance.
2. Regional Updating: If they want to only have the Regional Dex Pokemon, they better make sure those Pokemon are up to date to modern day standards. If a Pokemon should have their stats redone, redo their stats so they're better (or better balanced). Completely redo their movepool. See about giving them newer Abilities. If you're going to limit the option for competitive Pokemon choice in the game then the Pokemon you're offering needs to make me not miss these Pokemon as they give my most if not all the option I would want. Also I expect more animations for these Pokemon when battling and being played with in the Pokemon Refresh expy and also different Pokedex entries from what they had done that in Gen VII, so would just like to see it continue).
3. Give Us Something For What Has Been Taken: So, why no walking/following Pokemon? Why not making a batch of Pokemon we can ride on instead of using the bike? All Pokemon are in the regional dex, surely from that smaller list you can program them to follow us or let us hop on the bigger ones back to run around/surf. And that's just the tip of the suggestions I could make about how you should be giving us a lot more now. I already mentioned the two macro-suggestions: (1.) a fleshed out story with equally fleshed out themes and characters and (1.) many engaging mechanics/features (maybe even some from past games, like Pokemon Contests and the Battle Frontier). In a way you have to distract older players from going "man, I wished this Pokemon was in this game" by making us having fun with the Pokemon that are in the game (which goes with what I said above by also updating the Pokemon to make sure they're as good as they can be).
4. Free DLC To Add More In Later: Now I'm not saying that all Pokemon should be allowed back in via DLC (though if it can be done should be), just saying while I get for the main game wanting to stick with the Regional Dex (and then for some of the early battling competition just to get a metagame settled), there's no reason to then let some other Pokemon outside of the Galar dex to be allowed. Maybe you can use data from the battling competitions to see where certain gaps are and introduce Pokemon back in that way, and I doubt many people would get angry seeing their favorite/popular Pokemon being added back in just because. But, just like with the Pokemon in the Regional Dex, I expect those Pokemon to also be updated to modern standards (stats, movepool, Abilities).
5. Make A New Stadium/Battle Revolution That Has All The Pokemon: If the issue with not wanting to add in all the Pokemon is so that you can focus on making the region, story, and mechanics more fleshed out, fine. However you should then throw a bone to the more competitive players by making another Stadium/Battle Revolution game which has all the Pokemon and even have VGC tournaments take place there as well. If you want to make the core series game more focused on the story and region with a focused metagame than split the expansive metagame into its own game where it's just about battling and also giving different battling styles and rules to show how versatile Pokemon battles can be. Also, you're going to have to understand these games may not sell as much and you may have to take a loss.
And these are the things I can just think of right now.
BUT Here's Still The Thing: GF, you just created a HUGE mountain for you to climb. Because no matter how pure your intent is, what this does mean is that people's favorite Pokemon will not be included in the game. This is a big step back from the Pokemon message about getting attached to these creatures and now even they aren't safe from being sidelined. Sure, they could find a new favorite Pokemon, but how sincere would that be they just found a new favorite because there's wasn't able to be put in the game and who knows if it will be in future DLC or the next gen. And even if you do make the Stadium/Battle Revolution game will have their favorite Pokemon, they may be a casual fan so may not want to lay down an additional $60 (I would say sell those games as a discount price but from what I understand it's Nintendo's policy to have all Switch games be the same price) just to use them again.
Point Of Pokemon Home?: Also, what's the point of transferring the Pokemon that aren't in the Galar region into Pokemon Home? I'd rather keep them in the game they're in now until I can transfer them into another game.
And that's all I have to say about this, at least from the top of my head though I'm sure other have made points. Tomorrow I'll go on my possible removal of Mega Pokemon & Z-Moves rant and then my opinions on the other little bit of news and responding to comments...
(I swear if this was one of Masuda's stupid decisions...)