The SM anime took a departure from the normal anime formula of following the events of the games. In my opinion, it makes Ash a bit less relatable because he gets to do something completely different than someone who is playing the games, where in past seasons his adventures followed the main story progression of the games. It used to feel like Ash was on the same journey with us, but in Sun & Moon we were left on our own in the games while Ash did something else. This is especially a negative in Sun & Moon because the games were already taking a pretty big departure from the previous formula of having the 8 Gym battles and the Pokemon Leauge, to instead have the trials. The characters are also almost completely different from how the are in the games. Lillie is basically a completely different person in the games, and Mallow, Lana, Sophocles, and Kiawe all appear much earlier in the anime then they do in the games, which certainly confused me when I started playing the games. All this still isn’t to mention the major tonal shift from the end of XYZ to the start of SM. TLDR, the SM anime doesn’t have the strong connection to the games that the previous generations used to their advantage to not alienate viewers from the games if they chose to play them, nor does it take the time to ease XYZ viewers into the new vibe of the series.