[Kurona]

I think you're over-exaggerating the comfort zone aspect a little, and in all honesty I'm not entirely sure where it's coming from. I haven't seen a single generation go by where people did not flock to the new Pokémon to try them out; whether casual or competitive, and said new Pokémon were quite consistently the highlight of any new game. If you're going to use this argument, would it not then make sense to want a BW-style of game instead, where older generation Pokémon are not available until a later point in the game? Or perhaps even something like FRLG, where Pokémon literally do not exist in the game's coding until you beat the champion. Again I genuinely do not see any evidence for where this is coming from -- I've always seen people add the likes of Aegislash and Mudsdale to their old standbys of Arcanine and Gliscor, and it was quite an appreciated mix. One of the great things about seeing Pokémon teams is that it wasn't biased towards either or; I always saw teams with a healthy balance of new and old Pokémon alike.

I also think the aspect of competitive is being a little overstated, as well as misunderstood with little thinking outside the box. The amount of people that care about competitive is generally quite minuscule, which is part of the reason why I find the reason given of "it helps balance the game" a little bit laughable. In regards to that last bit, I actually feel this is evidence towards Game Freak not trying to balance the game -- rather than going in a sensible direction and changing aspects of Pokémon, providing balance updates, introducing new ideas; it's just taken the easy sledgehammer route and removed a lot of Pokémon. Ultimately all this will result in is new overpowered threats rising up -- just because Heatran and Landorus no longer exist doesn't mean suddenly all the problems are gone, and with a lack of care towards balancing anything out, Game Freak won't have created anything terribly good here. It'll still be as bad as it's always been, just without people blaming Ferrothorn for every loss.

Regardless, the problem itself does not lie specifically in that Pokémon are being removed -- rather, just that content in general is being removed with nothing in its place; leaving the game as simply lesser than its previous. It's a downward spiral Pokémon has been on for a very long while with things like the Battle Frontier, walking Pokémon, Seasons and so many other things being constantly cut - and maybe added back in for one game, but not for long - with nothing in its place, and it's simply more noticeable now that it's effecting the one thing the majority of players truly loved. I am not opposed to the idea of getting something different -- I am disillusioned by the idea of getting something lesser, year after year.

I just wish that Nintendo would give Game Freak similar breaks that they've given the teams on Metroid Prime 4 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Delay the game so the development team have the time to build the game as they truly want it; and to make something truly special. "A delayed game is eventually good; but a rushed game will always be bad."