They deem the games to have been better. I share this opinion, my favourite region is Johto. It's the first time we see berries, gendered Pokemon (and thus breeding) and in the case of Crystal, a female protagonist and battle tower.
You can go between two full sized regions, something not done in any other generation (unless D/P have done this? I've not got to playing those). Also there's time, days nights etc... And all the things a PokeGear can do. :D
It's just somehow more favourable in many respects, can't go into details as to why though, that's difficult... I suppose it's just the better constructed, with the most features to it (in Japan, Crystal could do some kind of dial-up thing, consult Wikipedia on that xD).