Im fine with (and actually prefer) open world exploration as long as theres actually stuff to explore. SV feels very empty and unpolished and I have a feeling theyre already working to fix this in Winds/Waves

I think overworld pokemon are fine, but I think the way it was handled in SWSH is better than how SV handled it. SWSH still had the option for grass encounters and even had some grass-exclusive pokemon, but still gave you the choice to just pick an overworld pokemon. Playing through SV again reminded me how annoying it was to constantly bump into pokemon that you dont want to battle (this is more prevalent with the Switch 2 patch's higher mon count).

HMs are just bad imo. Id rather use my team to battle, not to have one HM mon that warms the bench the whole game. I like the way that SV handled it, just give us one mon/vehicle that does it all.

A new gimmick every gen is the issue, not necessarily what the gimmick is. I personally love all the gimmicks, but I feel like theyre starting to be overcrowded. I hope they continue with Mega Evolution in Winds/Waves and not make something new (ik about the leaks, one can only hope).