Scarlet and Violet sold 10 million copies during the launch weekend, so I think they'll be pretty content to keep churning out mediocre games at a much faster pace.
Yeah but this is a literal nobody coming into the market and pulling almost half the sales numbers as the single biggest franchise in the world with near 30 years' worth of brand recognition. That's still got to be somewhat of a wakeup call.
Every Pokémon is someone's first. I bet about up to half of each iterations sales are completely new customers. And then another big chunk being a group where it's their second or third.
Plus, it's far from my "second or third" and I still enjoy them. Pokemon games are what they are, and I like them.
I'm not saying they couldn't be improved, but I don't pass on a game just because it doesn't max out its potential. I buy fun games, and no game is perfect.
Palworld is basically what I wanted Pokemon Legends: Arceus to be (minus the guns, obviously). The game has issues, which I mostly chalk up to early access woes, but it's a great case study in how to do an open world creature collector game.