By far, I think I've played Hoenn games the most out of all. I've manged to get 3 level 100 starters from it within the last 8 or so months, and by having both Ruby and Sapphire, I've reset many times. Why? I don't know. They're the least addictive of all the games. (Then again, I've had Pearl since 2008 and haven't felt the need to reset it, same goes for LeafGreen, which means both are more boring.) Johto and Kanto games however, have been reset, just not to the extent of R/S. I really have had no reason to play them over and over.
Overall, I hate the games. They just seem depressing and too natural for me. Reasons why? The route before Fortree was SO DAMN LONG, rained most of the time...yeah. I don't know, something about the appearance of the games just made me feel down when playing them.
The music seemed too different from Johto/Kanto's - which interested me as a child. That was the music I grew up with, although not exactly when I was a young kid, but it was an important part of my childhood. It captured the childhood innocence I had which I've now long lost. Many of the things I can remember as a child... well, Gold was apart of it. I mean, I've even had pictures taken of me playing Gold. The most stand out moment was when I finally reached the top of the Tin Tower in Gold, facing Ho-Oh, (sadly that excitement has been lost in HG, but this isn't supposed to be about why HG cannot compare to Gold for me.) However, on that point, I don't have any memories of playing R/S. At that time I'd assume I was in my late childhood to early teen years. People didn't care about Pokemon anymore. I didn't. The spark I had from Gold/Crystal, and even R/B/Y just was gone.
On a positive note for R/S, most of the Pokemon I consider to be apart of gen 1/2, due to Sinnoh's terrible Pokemon. I mean, even Torchic, one of the Hoenn starters is my favourite Pokemon overall. Sadly it didn't come from Johto - but either way, due to some of my favourites (Azurill being the second favourite from Hoenn), I don't hate Hoenn as much as I'd hate Sinnoh. Also, positive of Hoenn - Bellossom was included...but it still didn't have the spark Johto had with its Pokemon.
I would compare Hoenn to Sinnoh but I just dislike it too much to make many valid points.
Overall though, Hoenn was nice...just didn't exactly appeal to me. Though some of the Pokemon were amazing. <3