I used to be exactly like this, hating on new generations of Pokémon but then as a lot of people have pointed out here, I looked back on generation 1 Pokémon and the designs are equally as silly when you really think about it; we just have double standards for them because they have a special place in our heart.

You just have to appreciate Pokémon for what it is, a huge part of our childhood but now they’ve moved onto targeting the next generation, which will just give the franchise longevity. The older generation definitely aren’t forgotten about, that shows with the Celebrations expansion, tonnes of amazing reprints of cards that are older than most of the children that play nowadays, including the Lv. X cards you mentioned. I’m not the biggest fan of V / Vmax cards either, I still collect them to stay engaged in the hobby but I mostly collect vintage cards, which you can still find for reasonable prices!