I will defend dual releases as they're to encourage social interaction. Pokemon was meant to be trading first and foremost and while it went on to be far more then that, getting kids on the playground to talk is still a part of pokemon's identity. Heck, growing up as an autistic kid who had a hard time making friends, the social aspect of pokemon was a HUGE part of my childhood.
Third versions are really cashgrabby though. While the improvements are usually welcome ones, they are still polishing the same game they just tried to sell you a year ago a bit more then slapping a new label on it. And considering how 3rd versions still tended to sell well, they made a TON of money for just a fraction of the effort. And they continued this into Gen 7 where an update or DLC could have been feasible. Heck they could've made a Pokemon Gun if they wanted and made way more money (and maybe even have more leeway to fix some optimization improvements to The Wild Area) so it was really surprising when they didn't.
The fact that someone with the proper foresight could outwit a cashgrab doesn't change that it's a cashgrab. Besides, when I got my copy of Pokemon Sapphire as a kid I had no idea that there was a superior version.
Dual releases
had a purpose, but with the increasing use of the internet they honestly should've been phased out around Gen 5 or Gen 6. Version exclusives and minor differences have no place when you can just hit up r/PokemonTrades (or whatever it's called) or hit up a friend on Discord and get the other game's exclusives in a day. At this point dual releases are more about series tradition and cash grabs, and they should honestly be done away with for a single, definitive experience. Kids can still play together on the playground with a single Pokémon game. Maybe have exclusives be tied to trainer ID or some other random data in the game (like Platinum did with the fossils) to encourage that, but there's little reason to keep them in my opinion.
I mean, I wanted SuMo so badly, and I super happy that I got it for Christmas, only for thek to release Ultra a year later. That actually pissed me off, and because of that, I never got Ultra. Never bothered to check the release cycle, never got into the hype. It burned me.
Ain't that a mood. I don't think I ever bought either of the Ultra games, instead
LEGALLY ACQUIRING them. They're still one of my least favorite games in the series for how they butchered Sun & Moon's story, though I do appreciate the added difficulty.
BDSP is exactly what it should be. A remake. Last remake was goddamn ORAS. You want that again? Get outta here.
This is exactly what people screamed at the rooftops for, to the letter; faithful Sinnoh remakes that don't look like SwSh. And now suddenly that's bad.
ORAS at least added on to the Hoenn Experience via more Megas, Soaring, the DexNav, and the Delta Episode (also introducing modern features such as the Physical/Special Split and Fairy Type that Hoenn didn't have). Yeah cutting the Battle Frontier due to laziness sucked, but ORAS
added to Hoenn in meaningful ways, and also re-introduced the most kino champion, Steven Stone (who is WAY better than Cynthia do not @ me), in what could be considered the definitive edition of Hoenn.
BDSP is a monkey's paw of Game Freak listening too hard to people wanting a
faithful Sinnoh remake. People always wanted the Platinum improvements and further QoL changes and additions. They just didn't want Game Freak to **** it up like they typically do. So, Game Freak
overcorrected and now we have remakes that add nothing and could genuinely be argued as inferior to Platinum.
With Legends so close, I'll just wait for that instead of shelling out a full $60 for essentially the same experience that I can get on an emulator for free.
Basically, I'm not going anywhere lmao.