Game Freak has been hindered by technology.
Back when Pokémon main series was for portable systems, Pokémon could seriously contend with any jRPG you can think of, mainly because during the 1990-2000s era, apart from Golden Sun (which did not came until GBA), jRPGs were seen (and still are, just look at Dragon Quest, SMT or Persona) and a few others, most heavy RPGs were designed for non-portable systems (SoA [DC], FF [SNES, then PSX], Dragon Quest [jumped from NES to SNES, same as FF], and so on, so on, so on, in the 2000+ eras they kept developing these kind of games mainly for PS2/GC, and not only jRPGs, but any kind of RPG (Tales of Symphonia was initially exclusive of GC, same happened to other aRPGs), and handheld systems were mostly suited for sRPGs (tactics, advance war, Fire Emblem, this one being a curious case because FE jumped from NES/NES to GBA and then, apart from 2 tittles that were developed for GC and Wii, became a handheld franchise).
What I mean is, during those times, (from GB to even NDS), when development time needed was much shorter and also the investment of money was noticeably inferior, you could literally compare in terms of quality any past Pokémon game to the greatest jRPG you can think of because if you exclude the ones like Chrono Trigger or other classic jRPGs focused on long stories and good narrative, there wasn't anything like Pokémon. Not even the franchises it is based on, like the DQ Monsters subsaga. In terms of technical quality, all the handheld games are pretty similar. For sure, there are a few that look better than others, but let's say there's no real difference between a Wario Land 3 or a Pokémon Ruby, both look just fine. And that was the thing back then: games looked "just fine". But then they felt obligated to change everything.
Videogames, specially after the 3D open world paradigm began, are about comparisons. What was Pokémon Gold? Pokémon Gold. What is Pokémon Sword and Shield? Worse Breath of the Wild. Worse Xenoblade. Worse... Here's the thing. After games, even handheld games, started to improve graphically, Game Freak couldn't afford to keep doing Pokémon in NDS style. Now, Nintendo Switch is an hybrid system, this is the first time in Nintendo history that big companies can not develop classic portable games to Switch, because Switch is like Nintendo Wii, or Game Cube, or Wii U, or SNES. It is where the BIG games, and not the handheld games, belong to. Game Freak is a handheld company forced to suddenly develop games for a big system, and thats why they are having so much problems regarding technical issues and overall quality of graphics (in this sense, Sword and Shield are rushed, very rushed, in fact, til this day I do sincerely believe that Dexit wasn't their intention, and that they somehow messed up and, because it was impossible to delay the games due to TPC pressure, they just improvised on the fly (therefor the -now proved- lies of "we are doing this to improve the animations") and used that error to sell 2 DLCs, but that's another theme.
As a fan of Pokémon, and knowing that Game Freak has not the best team when it comes to programming, I'm not asking for BotW, XenoSaga, MH graphics, nor story or narrative or character development. No. I'd be happy with SwSh graphics on Switch (polishing a lot of aspects, like c'mon, those Pokémon dissapearing because potato, the infamous popping, framerate in wild areas online, the ladders thing, walking animations, character expresiveness, etc, etc), but they need to relax themselves in what matters the most and focus on content. Pokémon is about content. There's no single jRPG in the history of videogames with a formula that equals Pokémon formula. There just isn't. With minor effort on the technical side, you can offer games with lot of things to do. It isn't even difficult. How many hours can you put into a standard jRPG? 50, 60, 100 hours? They are substantially longer than Pokémon. Ok. Then you finish it, what now? And that's where Pokémon formula has always shined. You have the possibility of trading AND fighting others for dozens of hours, you have the possibility of learn to (if you still don't) breed, then use those Pokémon to confront Battle Facilities, because Pokémon has an actual metagame, it has an actual competitive, strategized side of gameplay that most games of its genre lacks.
Just to put one real example, a Pokémon game with a story worth of 20-30 hours of gameplay, with a Wild Area, some "sidequests", 500 to 600 wild Pokémon + the possibility of obtaining others via transfer, co-op and online battles, underground, contests, PokéWood, a noticeable post-game the likes of BW2 after the main story where you get to obtain some more legendaries and met some characters and fight some high leveled trainers, with a battle frontier, new or recycled, with 4 or 5 facilities, something akin to secret bases and a Join Avenue, rematches, 10 or 12 legendaries with in-game locations/events, alternate post-game challenges similar to the white treehollow/black skyscrapper, radar or some new tech with shiny hunting, more customizable options in online battles and... and that's it.
And you've done NOTHING new really. You've just implemented things from past games (not even all of them), and just with that, you've a game worthy of 200-300 hours of gameplay BEFORE you even have time to start burning hours doing your preferred shit (breeding or whatever). And no jRPG, no one to this day, has this much potential in terms of replayability.