Like a few people above, I've been playing Pokemon since Generation I, and not many of my friends have stayed with it. Now I see little kids who got into it during Generation III or IV, and half of them are insufferable little twinks who powerlevel and EV train and use all sorts of dodgy tricks. Many cheat. Many others just trade for level 100 Pokemon that were trained by someone else.
The reason I keep training (other than the fact that I enjoy watching a level 5 Charmander become a level 100 Charizard) is for honour - the honour of the few scattered Generation I trainers still battling away out there. I've never cheated in a Pokemon game, never used AR to catch an event Pokemon (or any other), never used the Missingno Glitch or the Mew Glitch. I caught all my Pokemon myself (and traded for the ones I couldn't), and I trained them the old-fashioned way: battling.
It's not as fast or efficient as cheating, but unlike all the new trainers out there with their level 100 shiny EV'd Arceus's that they got pre-trained by someone else, I can say that my level 54 Infernape was properly trained, by me.