3rd Gen Gymless

Emerald wasn't my favorite game for no reason. I loved all the gymless towns and cities because it gave you a chance to do something else besides hunting for the next badge. The Pokémon contests in ruby and sapphire were also great as well as the Safari Zone and the Battle Tents

It would be wierd if all had gyms


Ninjask~

The gymless towns were amazing. not by themselves, of course, but in the context of the entire region. It seemed more realistic, like the poeple there had other things to do besides battling and winning badges.

Lilycove City has got to be one of the best places in any Pokemon region so far. The way it was designed is exceptional, set on a beautiful cliff by the ocean. And it had the department store and Safari Zone to keep you entertained which i think proves taht you don't need a gym to stop you getting bored. i spent hours doing contests and catching every single pokemon in that safari zone so it was one of my favourite places.

Besides, if you wanted to battle, your rivl was their and the Aqua hideout is right next door. genius design.

I liked it. It added more depth to the world and made it feel like an actual town instead of just another level.

Some of the gymless towns were given Pokemon Contests, so four of them (Slateport, Verdanturf, Fallabor and Lilycove) will be visited sometimes. Plus, because of the Pokemon Contest I believe that they'll be visited even more than the gym towns. They got a bit forgotten in Emerald Version, because all the contests were moved to Lilycove, so Lilycove became overvisited (not only because it includes all the contest ranks, but also because of the department store).

Besides the Pokemon Contest, any gymless town has its own singularity and there isn't any problem if you will not visit that town again to make any thing inside it. The simple fact you need to fly to that town to rematch a trainer at a route in its side is already enough to make that town an important point.

I think the towns without gyms certainly add something more to the game by just bringing Hoenn more alive.And with a lot of the towns being so unique - Pacifidlog being the obvious one, you don't find yourself just wanting to cycle right through them.
However, on the topic of Unova, as most people are comparing the two regions, I wouldn't say the lack of towns without gyms was a problem, or how you have long sequences of linear gameplay (e.g. after defeating Lenora) - if anything, I liked those bits as they made it more cinematic. I would say the biggest problem is more that the route layout is so linear - only Nimbasa and Opelucid have more than one path through them (in Black and White at least, I don't know about the sequels). By comparison, when you look at Hoenn, or Johto/Kanto in HeartGold, its all more inter-connected, with all roads in Hoenn leading to Mauville City for example. And Johto only has two towns without gyms, yet its fine.

So in answer to the question of whether or not there should be more or less gym-free towns, I would say I'm fairly indifferent, provided each towns has enough character, and preferably more than two ways in/out.