Pokemon Should Do This!

[Hoeloe]

Which is ultimately another big debateable problem in the gaming industry. Of course money needs to be made for the time put into making games, I can understand that. But if that's the only goal or the ultimate goal, then the actual gameplay usually suffers from it.

I do agree, but you also need to consider the target audience. What a lot of people forget is that Pokemon games are not made for us. We complain about how they're too easy, and too linear, and too similar to what we've seen before, but we always forget that the games aren't aimed at us. They're aimed at children. The point of new Pokemon games is so that children have essentially the same experience we all did with Red and Blue, or Gold and Silver. However, the games need to be adapted to fit the modern gaming culture.
Games in the GB era were very limited. They didn't have the hardware capability for much content, or for stunning visuals or in-depth plot. The way this was compensated for was by adding difficulty to the games, to make what little content there was stretch out. Now that this is no longer an issue, games have become easier in favour of more content. The new Pokemon games have been made to mirror the difficulty this generation of children is familiar with. Think of it this way: could you honestly imagine your average child from this generation persevering with Super Mario Bros.? Why would they, when they can have an easier time on a more modern game?
My point is that the aim of the new Pokemon games was never to be something new. In fact, the whole point is that it stays more or less the same.