"Wanted To Finish The Game Fast":
That's an interesting insight that
Worldie had, and though my younger cousins don't have Let's Go I think they would be the same way (however they do have Smash and, despite having it for a few days before I visited them, they only had a handful of characters unlocked, in the time I was there I helped unlocked more characters then they had (though the battles to unlock characters are surprisingly tough)). And can we really blame kids for wanting to get through a game fast? With so many games available for them to play, to get that kids demographic, for a game to standout they need to offer an experience that's quick to pick up, get through, and put down.
I AM NOT SUGGESTING A GAME SHOULD BE SHORT. Rather, I think previous core series Pokemon titles are a perfect example of this mindset: you can pick up a Pokemon game, play for a bit making some progress, and then save anywhere & shut down the game to continue later. As long as the game is engaging they'll return to play it, at least until they finish the main game (and maybe any post game story). Even before the days of "Key Item Exp. Share" the Pokemon games were balanced so that, for the most part, a player with a dedicated team would be at the proper level (the challenge mainly being in knowing Type match-ups, moves, and Abilities). And despite all the jokes about hatching hundreds of eggs, that's only a thing if you want to make a competitive team, at no point in the main game are you expected to hatch eggs.
But that's where Let's Go is different and makes a major mistake: it makes grinding required or at least highly suggested. I'm wondering if Worldie's nephew had been to inclined to skip not catch so many Pokemon or skip battles if it was a normal Pokemon game where battles are more engaging. By Let's Go removing wild battles & suggesting you catch a lot of the same species of wild Pokemon to not only easily experience grind but also trade in for stat boosting candy, it does seem the game is making you work TO battle instead of having battles have a constant presence. They're not asking the player to grind or else they'll end up as your nephew with an underpowered team.
This goes back to them forcing the GO mechanics. Those mechanics work in GO because you're not playing a dedicated experience. You're walking around in real life so don't have time to stand still and battle, just throw a Poke Ball and go. Gyms and Poke Spots are landmarks, stores, etc. because those are natural places you may stop at so you have time to do a battle. But a console game doesn't have this limitation because it's an experience you not only play when you're sitting around but you're also playing in a digitally created world where the most amount of real life movement you do is with your thumbs.
Content Pile-Up:
There's only a certain amount of all this content a player can experience in a regular playthrough (heck, only a certain amount of it the games can inform players about, without littering the overworld with Trainer Tips signs)
Maybe if they did more with the Trainer School we could have a location with at least the very basic details of all mechanics in one location.
Starting over means losing all your progress. Even if you start over, it would take many playthroughs before you've seen every ability, or the full movesets of every available Pokémon.
I'm going to say it: Pokemon needs multiple save files. Also wouldn't hurt to have a New Game+ mode or some sort. Maybe even add in special campaigns that unlock after the main game where you play a mini-story with a pre-made team. While still a player will never experience every Pokemon, Move, Ability, and Item, they would at least still get a nice chunk without having to restart their only save file.
Also wouldn't hurt to have better distribution for not only wild Pokemon but also trainers, and having trainers using more Pokemon (and maybe letting us rematch them where they would have evolved Pokemon).
In PLG, Game Freak has tried to address this problem in two ways:
First, by scaling down the amount of content. No Pokémon beyond the original 151. Almost all items and almost all moves are gone. No abilities, no weathers, no terrains, no Wonder Room, no National Dex. What is left is a manageable number of monsters and moves to keep track of in a single playthrough. It is possible to play through the game once and see most of what it has to offer.
I have no issue limiting the Pokedex to just the regional dex (though I expect the regional dex to be respectable in size). As for being able to get the Pokemon outside of the regional dex, while obviously I would like that done, if they could create a tighter game experience by initially excluding outside regional dex Pokemon I don't see why not. They could then add in the extra Pokemon later via free DLC, and once all Pokemon families are in the game they could release the third version/second paired games with all the Pokemon in it (plus the extra content those games should have).
And by doing this they'd also limit Moves and Abilities. Abilities add an additional layer to battles, changing how certain Pokemon play (and some Pokemon can't operate properly without their Abilities). They shouldn't be removed. As for Weather, Terrain, and Rooms, the issue with them isn't that they exist but rather no one uses them. Maybe if they had more trainers using them or have a way to activate these field effects outside of using a move/having an Ability that summons it they wouldn't feel like a foreign concept that adds "bulk".
Also they need to make more Items available during the game to also not make them feel like added "bulk". You have the Poke Marts, just distribute most of the held items throughout them (maybe even giving certain Marts specific items they only sell).
The second way is by shifting the focus of a significant portion of the gameplay: wild Pokémon encounters. It is no longer about battling the wild Pokémon and capturing one only if you want to use it. Now, you're meant to capture every creature that comes your way, enticing players to eventually collect the entire Pokédex instead of only the handful of 'mons they want to use in that playthrough.
I understand the need to make Pokemon about more than battling... but the main reason you play a core series Pokemon game IS for the battling. It's an unfortunate paradox that understandably haunts GF. Of course, whenever they introduce an alternative to battling they more often then not then remove it next game. Pokemon Contests, Pokeathlon, Pokemon Musicals, PokeStar Studios... they give you them for one or two generations but scrap it the next. Thankfully Pokemon Refresh looks like it's sticking around, though despite its cute aesthetic it is rather limited (would be nice if they combined USUM's photo mode to it but I can see that disappearing).
Moreover, by shifting the focus away from battling, the games peter out as soon as the credits roll. (...) Pokémon went from a game you could have endless fun with, and come back to play over and over again, to a game you play, finish and forget. That's probably not the key to sustaining long-term success.
I'm surprised Let's Go doesn't have a Battle Tower, that's a MAJOR exclusion which directly takes away from the game as it doesn't leave at least someplace you can test your skill in against a wide variety of trainers.
Though just in general, if they're not going to bring back the Battle Frontier, they need to add more onto the post game Battle Tower expy. It's neat they have important NPCs (from both current and past games) as boss battles at end of long streaks, but it's still the same battling style (single, double, & tag). Why not add Rental Battles? Inverse Battles were pretty popular, why not add that as a mode? Little Cup gives unevolved Pokemon a chance to show their stuff. We talked about how Weather/Terrain/Rooms aren't used that often, how about a mode where one of those activate at the start of the battle? Just because you don't want to spend the effort making a whole Battle Frontier because you think no one will see it doesn't mean you should also toss out the ideas it brought to change battles in interesting ways.
(...) But it still stands that the Pokémon games can't continue piling up content forever. Something has to break, if not in Gen 8 it will break even harder later on. However, the solution is clearly not to just reset the clock to 1996 and hope player preferences can be set back likewise.
How about this for a solution: stop introducing new mechanics and FOCUS on improving, fixing, and building upon the mechanics they have! Introduce more Mega Pokemon (ideally for Pokemon who honestly need them), expand upon the Z-Crystals, make Customization more open, add and build on the photo mode to Pokemon Refresh, work upon Weather/Terrain/Rooms/Hazards (including removing hazards) and all those other mechanics. They have a wide surface of mechanics but shallow depth, instead of trying to increase the length maybe focus on making it deeper.
Also, GF, take your time (and Nintendo, Pokemon Compnay, or whatever may be forcing them doing a near yearly release, back off). Don't make Pokemon like Madden where there's a new game every year. We don't need that, and we probably wouldn't feel so burned out if you hadn't done that. After the first initial Gen 8 paired game, take 2 or 3 years to develop the next games and keep doing that.