I agree with this, but also with the surge of another almost Pokemania-like situation. Some players who stopped early on might give it another try because of Pokemon GO and other factors.
The key difference is that Go is only gen 1 Pokémon. The genwunners who play don't have to "soil their sight" by having to look at the likes of Girafarig or Magmortar or Krookodile.
Go's burst in popularity is not only because of its gen 1-exclusivity, but because it's a free app on smartphones, which almost everyone has. But because gen 7, despite all the gen 1-pandering, will include Pokémon from across all generations, I can't imagine the genwunners will be so quick to drop $200 for the system (because they likely don't have it already) so they can buy a single $40 game. They couldn't overlook Cherrim and Finneon in gen 4, despite all the gen 1 Pokémon it included, so I doubt they'll be able to overlook Bounsweet and Wishiwashi this time around, either, just for the sake of a Meowth and Rattata recolor.
Which brings me to this:
Thinking about it, genwunners will probably end up hating the Alolan forms just like everything else. "Why would they change a perfectly fine design!?" Or something like that. But hey, a lot of players throughout the years seem to liked a lot of the Alolan forms. I love them, to be honest.
I actually totally agree. Genwunners, with their "infallable" logic, are probably the ones who will dislike these changes the
most. But that makes it even more disappointing that the Alola forms are Kanto-only. The genwunners aren't the ones who are appreciating these form changes, so why limit them only to gen 1 Pokémon?
And, honestly, I think most people like the
concept of Alola forms--heck, even I like the concept! But I think the execution is not being handled well at all; there are so many non-gen 1 Pokémon that could benefit from this kind of form change, not even from a competitive standpoint but from a design and lore standpoint. To limit this feature to just gen 1 Pokémon really limits it and the creativity that amounts from it, not to mention it's disappointing to the fans who want to see other Pokémon get some sort of enhancement.
I mean, I took that "What Pokémon Type are You?" quiz over on the 20th anniversary web page and the questions it asked and answer options it gave were more "all generation inclusive" than SM are looking right now. That is NOT good,
especially for the "20th anniversary titles."