What would you say is the current state of Pokémon?

Feels like a Pokemon Game fans want to be treated like trash. They are okay with barely any story. Have less new Pokemon then Sinnoh. A Gimmick that is napkin paper quality. Allow many new Pokemon to be old pokemon but just variants(usually anime viewers like this), and want one single strong pokemon for competitive that will be on every team that qualifies. It's truly despicable.

There are undoubtedly some apologists out there that excuse all the problems. They give a lot of cover to Nintendo and Gamefreak's poor practices, and they do disrupt a lot of good faith, constructive critical discussions with accusations of "being a hater" or "not a real fan".

But I don't think they represent the majority of people buying Pokémon games en masse.

I think a lot of them are very casual gamers. (I am not saying that derisively.) Pokémon might be one of the few, or perhaps the only game they play. They don't know much about the industry or other games, and the standards of quality that are expected from other series. They see big changes like the shift to 3D or open world alongside other minor developments, they are impressed, they play through the story assisted by things like the exp share, and they stop gaming until the next Pokémon release. They are satisfied.

Or they are children. They don't know better. Their parents bought them their first Pokémon game. And they have fun, because despite all the problems, the gameplay loop at the core of Pokémon games is still fun.

I don't think the answer is to attack or insult those people. If we want to sway Nintendo and Gamefreak to do better by affecting their sales, the best strategy is not to belittle or try to ruin the fun of these casual gamers.

It is to politely, logically and succinctly point out where the games may be lacking or have issues, and highlight how remedying those issues might make their Pokémon experience better.

Put the question to them and let them think about it: Is this really the best the world's biggest media franchise can do? Do we deserve better?

From what I know about fans for such massive games is that there will be a grown adult fan that portrays the worst of what I was talking about with vitriol.

It's not along the lines of what is beneficial to the Nintendo image and not to the game. They do exist and it's very real. Us hating on them teaches their family around them what kind of person they are and that it isn't healthy. What they do going forward is in their hands. Hopefully softly(sometimes strictly) guide them to other hobbies.

It's like celebrating an early birthday from your Father who hasn't been involved in getting you milk.