Island Trials or Gym Badges

As prior before gen 7, Gym badges from various gym leader are needed to get to pokemon league and it's just simple pokemon battling, the next thing GF comes up for 7th gen is Island Trials , these things you have to do task from the captain and/or island kahuna often you battle a totem pokemon and not just the captain nor kahuna, as for proven yourself you given a Z-crystal and after finishing grand trials you been awarded a stamp of that island and after all stamp you head to pokemon league.

Do you prefer earning gym badges thru old style pokemon battling or earn a stamp on your trainer's passport by fulfilling many task before finishing your grand trials.

trials!

while yes, trials may be gyms dressed up in a different way (i suppose if you want to see it through that perspective), i found myself being more engaged by trials than i ever really have by gyms. with gyms, there's barely any real interaction with the gym leader, and battling is the central focus. this holds true to some degree with trials, but the trial captains have more personality and interaction with the player, and the trials themselves can be pretty fun. c:

Trials. Made more sense than solving a gym puzzle. Who designs those gyms? Must take a lot of effort for a (relatively) simple puzzle.

Mixed up gameplay, more importantly. Encouraged debuffs. Showed off doubles strategies. Felt more difficult than the average gym leader too. Punched holes through Pokemon with 140 base Special Attack Water Guns + rain + Helping Hand, Toxic + Venoshock, and an instant Solar Blade.

Prefers badges over stamps, however. Represents your victory clearer.

hmmm.... I like having badges. I feel like they should just do something different with gyms rather than the mandatory 'here's a bunch of trainers and a puzzle': why not put trials in a gym? =p
I quite liked the trials, as they were a break from the same old same old Gyms. Idk if I like them more though. Can't seem to pick lol

they're kinda just the same thing to me so I can't say I have a preference

Island Trials ended up effectively being gyms by another name and without trainers. You solve a puzzle (Or don't solve a puzzle because the devs ran out of time/budget), have a climactic battle against a specific type, and can progress again after your victory.

I liked Totem Pokemon as a different kind of capstone challenge at the end of a gym, but I also think that too often the challenge in a Totem Battle just came from the totem Pokemon's overwhelming stats. And facing one Pokemon with overwhelming stats instead of a more balanced team encourages and rewards cheese. Ultimate example of this (Thought it isn't a Totem battle) is Ultra Necrozma.

I really liked the concept of trials, not to mention that totem battle music was A+. It was super refreshing to play through games that didn't have gyms for once - seems like it was very hit or miss with people, but I liked it a lot. Honestly hard to say which I enjoyed more, but probably do lean more towards trials since they're unique and I've gone through the gym puzzle + battle thing in 7 other generations already. Can see the argument that trials are basically just gyms in a different costume but my mind didn't really see it that way, haha.

They're more or less the same thing to me. Only reason why I'm inclined to say gym badges is that the trials, specifically the fire trial was incredibly dumbed down.

I honestly liked the island trials a lot more, but gym battles are pretty great honestly too. I am torn between choosing just one. I think the trials were a nice change from the gyms back during S&M.

Island trials are in general more fun, to me at least. After you've done one gym you've kinda done them all.
Tbh I wish they'd been a bit more complex (looking at you fire trial) but its a nice change from just fighting trainers.
Way prefer badges though, I kinda forgot you get stamps after beating trials lol

I like the Trials mostly for just feeling different. They may come down to the exact same as Gym challenges. But things were switched up just enough that it felt like a different experience, regardless. The Totem Pokemon were also a nice little puzzle to solve.

Badges aithout a doubt, I mean, even if the trials were just gyms cloaked to seem different, I actually felt like I "earned" my victory in a gym battle as opposed to trials. It's probably why I do not find Sun and Moon interesting enough to play through again.