Pokemon Gen 3 - Underrated or Underappreciated?

[Yo-Yo Boy]

Well you could argue Red/Blue are now pretty primitive in design.
There were no EVs, IVs

Gen 1 did have those, actually.

You sure? Could have sworn it didn't have EVs at the very least, but tehre still might have been IVs.

Also, weren't shinies not introduced until Gold/Silver?

Yes EVs were in gen 1

Shinies and gender of pokemon were introduced in gen 2 but both of those things were based on stats in such a way that females can't be shiny in those games.

Only some pokemon couldn't have shiny females, it depends on the chance of different genders.