Premise, I can understand if this could count as derailing the thread (since in theory it's annoyances about pokemon and not about games in general), so if that's the case I don't mind continuing the topic on DMs or elsewhere.
Premise n2: my extreme lack of faith in the last generations as well as humans in general isn't exactly new expecially considering where I live and the current situation, so please forgive my... a bit extreme tone there.
That said, I found fun that you brought up Persona 5. Persona and SMT in general has a hardcore community that expresses exactly the same opinions I read on these boards about Pokemon games.
In the speedrun community which I belong to for example, "They are too easy", "the plot is boring in the last entries", "the last good game was Persona 3", "Atlus only wants to milk our money and stopped making good games" are topics I hear all the time. Don't they sound a bit familiar to what you read on the smogon boards?
And on some, they aren't wrong. Persona 5 and 5 royal are extremely easy games compared to their predecessors, and even an idiot would be able to complete them, and in the latest entry they even went as far as reworking the so called "Merciless" difficulty to the point where it's actually easier than normal mode once you understood the only mechanic change. And indeed some of the new plot entries are very terrible superficially (that is, if you aren't able to scratch the surface and read the metaphors)
You can look for similar shenenigans in a ton of "hardcore" communities of multiple games, at this point I'd be surprised if there's not a subreddit where people praise lord and savior Ocarina of Time and spam how all games after it are trash and BotW was just a overhyped garbage. Which is always overshadowed by a ridicolously bigger number of casual players and newcomers to the series that absolutely adore the latest title
Now, why do I bring this up? I think you misunderstood what I said with the latest entries of the various RPGs.
I did not say the games became "bad", or that they don't touch important subjects or don't have good stories, because it's not the case.
In fact, expecially JRPGs more and more love to make metaphors or the real life scenarios
Even Pokemon Sword and Shield, while not optimally, touches important themes like orphans, energy conservation, pollution, excessive fanboyism, and the Twilight Wings anime series is doubling onto touching serious themes in a more "child friendly" light.
While games, Pokemon included, have evolved to give a lot of real life references and try to """guide""" young people, however most of them have also been becoming easier and more accessible, with difficulty options all but disappearing in a lot of franchises and leaving any difficulty to the player's self-imposed challenge.
They also often have been hit by the issue I mentioned earlier, where they give a LOT of possibilities to players to play in whatever way they prefer, but with the result that any player capable of combining the systems offered ends up breaking the game inevitably very early, as soon as all the options are available.
All of this is due to a big generational shift in the gaming habits that GameFreaks actually read correctly: your typical 202x gamer is someone who enjoys playing a game for a small amount of time then dropping it. Playing it on his Switch with friends at the park. Who doesn't really care to look at complex mechanics. Who doesn't want to pidgeonholed in one playstyle, and wants to be able to "play the game as he likes".
The gamer like us have been long gone. The players who enjoyed playing the original World of Warcraft without a guide and discovering everything on our own by committing several hours per day every day. The players who loved to replay Super Mario Land over and over until you could finish it with 1 life. The player who yes, liked to get hardwalled by Miltank in Pokemon Silver and had to grind it out or find on his own a way to stop getting literally rolled over. The player who spent a ridicolous amount grinding the hell out of Disgaea's postgame to beat the final postgame boss.
Those are type of gamers that are dieing, and certain genres like MMOs are dieing with them.
In this case I'm not really ranting on "stupidity" of your modern gamer or young in general, but literally a generational shift of players who do not want to invest excessive time in the game, and that when they get stuck, will either look at a guide online, ask a friend how they beat it, or just give up.
And, if you are a gaming company, expecially an AAA one under the pressure of their publisher and investors that demand you to gain a minimal revenue that's a ridicolous number... who are you going to aim your game at?
Are you going to invest your money and development time into that small % of older playerbase who liked challenging, long games, and looked at graphic details and coherency as prime successes, or at the younger, way more numerous playerbase who likes casual approaches, doesn't exactly care of graphical artifacts and is guaranteed to be easy to make happy by just making a fun story with typical stereotypes?
I sure know the answer there, and who am I to blame them?
If anything, I am happy that despite the fact that the AAA design is moving more and more toward the casualization of gameplay rather than longevity and details, most of them (expecially in Japan as I believe it's a cultural thing for them, and yes this includes Pokemon) still do their best to include deep thinking moments and address real life situations.
That said, as I said in the premise, if you or the others think this derails the topic, I am glad to provide further details via DM if you prefer and want.
Just as I said on the 
