I feel like expanding on my thoughts on this:
Cutscenes have been getting more involved as the series goes on, but until SWSH its easy to sort of put out of mind since outside of the gamecube titles (an era that didnt have a ton of voice acting in most games) they're all handhelds and the brain's weird like that. But SWSH has multiple cutscenes that feel too quite. They put a lot of effort into the lip flaps and living gestures and focus on the faces that do nothing but talk and its just a little off, like a vocal track was meant to be there but wasn't. Piers is the absolute nadir of this but I have distinct memories of turning on the game, seeing the opening cutscene and going "hey you wanted voice acting for this didnt you".
No not every game necessarily needs voice acting. Mario's a good example of that. Main line mario has minimal dialog to begin with, and cutscenes often eemphasizing talking. And as Sunshine shows, mario characters dont really....have....good acting. Like you'll still occasionally get it in like side materials or weird things like charles martinet in an e3 booth but they're all very exaggerated characters that they continue to have that style of speaking even since 2001. And in the wordier RPG marios, there's often so much dialog that relies on snappy flow that it's not really designed to be vocalized even if the mario universe wasn't overly cartoony for it to work properly.
But SWSH, at the very least, feels like a game that could easily take the BOTW approach. Major cutscenes (maybe some battle dialog?) can have acting, and the rest can be supplemented with the occasional grunt. Pokemon dialog often isnt uhhhhhhhh, well, this isnt necessarily a complaint but "snappy" isnt what I'd describe it as, even when its funny. It's often designed around short bursts with the occasional monologue without a lot of complex sentences. Its a good fit, imo.
The idea of it being a ~useless trash idea that doesnt need to happen~ is such a bizarre knee-jerk reaction, too? Because voice acting can do a lot to elevate a product. I'm going to use fire emblem as an example here. It had shaky voiced beginnings starting in the 9 & 10th games (the GC & Wii games) for cutscenes and nothing else. Then the Marth remakes had none. And you know all those games are fine, beloved (depending on the game) even. Didn't NEED acting, really.
But then Awakening decided to do a mixed approach. Characters voice themselves in combat. Characters now have an assortment of voice clips that play during supports. And major CG cutscenes have (marked improvement on) voice acting, and then major lines will have full acting as well. Fates follwoed on that. And that was ncie! Most of the game still didnt have proper acting, but it really helepd give an idea of the characters mroe than just their dialog.
Then Shadows of Valentia had full voice acting and, like, uh, wow? It was really good? The game could have not had that and been perfectly enjoyable, but as a fully acted experience it helped raise all the characters and story to be something put as a mark for the game. Which is good because SOV, to play, issssssssssssssssss.........................s-soomething, alright.
Fire Emblem Warriors also got the full VA treatment and it was the first time I found myself caring at all about some of the characters. Someone like Marth & Caeda come off as very dull, but with voice acting they can take that same dialog and play off pretty nicely. Caeda in particular.
And then, Three Houses! Wow that is such an incredibly ugly game! And its got its fair share of things to criticize and, much like SWSH, clearly had some time constraint issues crop up. But it had full voice acting and I think went a long, long way to endearing the cast & story to everyone even more than prior games. The house leaders would no doubt still have plenty of fans, but their respective actors definitely lifted them up.
And of course, Fire Emblem heroes has done SUCH a major job of selling characters to me. The FE4 & 5 crew are, like, nothing to me before getting to hear them in Heroes. half the reason I want more remakes or remasters is to hear the fully acted scenes.
Anyway, if someone is just bashing SWSH for not having VO thats whatever, but its a legitimate want to have at this point in the franchise's life when its surrounded by games that do have it and can make it work. Anecdotally (so you know, massive ymmv) I've seen similar complaints from far more casual fans at hwo weird some of the scenes are without it.
Also Pokemon Masters has voice acting, in the BOTW or Fateswaekning style. That probably didnt help comparisons since like its right there, and had just come out during the SWSH cycle, and all.
e: This was far more rambly than I intended, I realize now...
