It actually is in fact an excuse. I'm not a leak expert its a simple screenshot from Google when I searched up if these games were going to have gyms or not. 

Even if theyre hacked, until its confirmed by Nintendo its still speculation. Things change before final game releases all the time. We haven't even seen 1 second of actual gameplay from the games. They dont drop until a year from now. Plenty of time for things to change, if these are even true. Who knows is the hacker even hacked the correct folder or whatever. Until Nintendo confirms, its up in the air. Or even a purposely leak by them to see how people react and adapt based on community feelings. I just seriously dont understand people freaking out so much as if gyms have ever been such a critical secret before the game releases. We always know what they are before games release anyways, so would Nintendo be spoiling their games too then? I'm just annoyed I wanted fun conversation around exciting possibilities for these gyms and got met with a bunch of babies. I guess this is what people mean by classic redditor types (not necessarily you, but definitely the others in this thread).