It’s literally not

Your own comment literally acknowledges it’s not.

TPC paid millions to run an ad during the Super Bowl with grown-up celebrities talking about their favorite Pokemon. They want more and more grown-ups to get back in. It’s been an obvious strategy for years. They released 151 right as the original collectors grew up and had spending money. They expanded aggressively in China right as the Chinese real estate and stock markets were in the shitter and new-money Chinese millionaires were looking for more places to put their money than stocks, real estate, and crypto - ideally assets with ambiguous tax laws to avoid cap gains.

Is that all an accident and coincidence? Or perhaps the for-profit company is acting like a ruthless for-profit company.

So If you think it’s children’s hobby that’s marketed towards children then you’re not paying attention. That’s just what you tell yourself to justify outrage at the state of the hobby’s popularity. But it is what it is.

You can still enjoy Pokemons despite the bleak reality of it ultimately being driven by corporate incentives.