Well I have successfully played through the entirety johto and almost all of kanto. so i can take any questions about them. I also have a few strange things I've encountered. For instance, the first rival battle at the beginning of the game didn't happen; when i returned after getting the egg, ??? would run up to me, and then have no dialogue. and, humorously enough, if i walked again on one of the two activation spots for him, he would then sprint down into the trees. He would do this every time i walked on one of the activation spots. Amusing, but i guess this happened because i evolved my totodile before the battle, so i didn't have a starter in my party for him to base his choice off of. Just a guess, because later i got the cindaquil from the man in the ocean and walked back home from cherrygrove, and he triggered with dialogue and a totodile despite me having picked totodile at the start. after this battle, surfing became bugged and the "riding pokemon" sprite disappeared and you could never go on dry land again. All other rival battles were fine, and were based on my initial starter choice. I'm guessing the script for the first fight was based not off my choice but what i had in my party, a reasonable assumption on the part of the developer but it makes for this weird consequence.
My second question, is how do i get to the seafoam islands. I have done the rest of kanto, have 15 badges, have triggered the team saturn event at the kanto radio tower, and I have no idea what i'm supposed to do. I can reach cinnabar island but the option to fly there never opens up, and I can't get to the other side, so I'm confused as the rubble south of fuchsia is uncleared by this time, unlike the original gold, silver, and crystal versions.