new one: trade evolution.
now i can see what they were going for with it. and i honestly don't really mind the inconvenience of trading that much. but the thing is, it's so obscure. the game rarely, if ever, tells you that that's what you need to do to evolve something. that's why back when my brother and i were kids, we'd have these unevolved level 70 mons because we didn't know how to evolve them. honestly having to use the internet to find out these things is kinda dumb and i don't like it. thanks.
I couldn't possibly agree more with you on that matter.
As a kid, there's no way you'd figure out on your own that trade evolution is a thing (at least not until much later when your Pokémon are notably over-leveled, just like you already said).
In addition to this you also had to have access to a Link Cable or you had to know someone that was willing to let you borrow theirs.
However, in this day and age where Wi-Fi connection is a thing and where there exists a plethora of Pokémon forums and chat rooms, it's actually not that tedious anymore.
People in the
Simple Questions/Request thread in Smogon's Wi-Fi section (including myself) are always willing to help out with trade evolutions for example.
In addition to this, I couldn't help but notice in the latest couple of games that they've developed a habit of wanting to take you by the hand and walk you through everything.
This isn't necessarily a bad thing considering the fact that there's a whole new generation of young players that are only just picking up the games for the first time, but they should in my opinion give more clues and hints to specific evolution methods while they're at it.
I mean, they could for example give you some sort of indication in the Pokédex entries of Pokémon like Graveler, Haunter, Kadabra etc.
The same thing applies to the obscure evolution method of Inkay.
I mean, who in their right mind holds their 3DS upside-down while getting their Inkay to Lv. 30?
I'm a loner so I don't have anyone reliable to do trade evolutions for me :[ Seriously though, trade evolutions are so dumb, like why can't I evolve my own mons smhsmhsmhsmsh >.>
Let's not forget that this was intentionally designed so that players would have to interact with each other in order to progress and complete their collections.
I'm also genuinely happy that they implemented this core theme in one of the early Sun and Moon teasers by using words like "Connect", "이어지다", "Se connecter", "Miteinander", "Conectar", "Comunicazione" etc.
At the end of the day it's the fertile ground for communities like Smogon and it stimulates its beating heart.