I don't think that's it (in fact, they did introduce A TON of QoL in SwSh to facilitate entry in competitive and overall "maintenance" of competitive pokemon).I really believe GF thinks competitive players don't care about that kind of thing, in a "let's not waste resources in something they are not going to pay attention to" sort of way.
I think they care of both competitive and casual players and somewhat try to cather both.
(edit note: competitive = VGC + BSS, remember Smogon doesn't exist)
I think they just fucking fail at PR, something that was shown so many times in the last 5 or so years that it really feels like beating a dead horse's ashes