It really is/was a great game. Not without its flaws, but overall it was a very fun game that seems to be well liked by most of the fans while a small contingent of vocal detractors hate it. 

I personally got 200+ hours out of Sword and Shield on my quest to catch em all! 

By what metric are you getting your info? These games sell and continue to sell amazingly well, they make the company a lot of money, they regularly get good to great reviews, and the world keeps on spinning. If people didn't like what they are doing with the Pokemon series, they wouldn't keep buying them. It's just that simple, really. 

I never had a problem with third versions, and I think DLC is a far superior option in every way. Everyone wins. 

Personally for me, I just feel the depth isn't there. Most of the focus seems to have gone to the Wild Area, and it shows in the lack of character and cohesion in the rest of the map.
I don't really care for Dynamaxing. If you enjoy it more then maybe the game would appeal more to you, but aside from a couple of interesting design they feel game-breaking and the battles with them just aren't enjoyable. Also the majority of them have terrible or downright lazy designs - Meowth, Pikachu, Eevee, Garbodor, Flapple, Appletun, Corviknight and the recently revealed Inteleon.

The Galarian forms also for me brke what made the Aloloan forms special and interesting. They fitted into the theme of Pokemon adapting to different environment and made sense in the context of how said Pokemon would specialise in that region. The Galarian forms are just random. At least half feel like padding. Stunkfisk, Yamask and Meowth feel like they fit but the others don't really make sense in the region. Corsola feels like one that would be more at home in Alola.

Then the region design. A few places fight in the context of the region being based of Britain, but the routes are so short and quick to get through it feels mismatched. Why does a desert connect to a dense forest, which also seems to be nextdoor to a polar region? It just adds up to the developers feeling like they're trying to do to much and therefore failing to give Galar a cohesive identity.

Well, we are expecting that the games on switch are now 60$. Using the new pricing with the third version, it would be 120$, just by being switch games. 

I mean, we were all okay (or at least i never seen complaints) with new entries of 3DS games on switch being 60$ instead of 40$.

Not sure I follow, a third version would still be a version of Sw/Sh, and are you saying you base your purchase decisions on the happiness of others? I'm just trying to understand how doing DLC in place of a third version is such an achievement that could change one's mind on the game.

Okay then let me rephrase it this way: Imagine that there was no Pokemon Direct, and I was still considering buying S&S today. I may hesitate to do so thinking that there may be a third version on the way, whereas with the announcement of DLC I now know there won't be.

I give it an 8/10, but consider a 7/10 reasonable as well. Had a blast with it, and thats all I can say.

To me it's the worse Pokémon ever. It lacks and/or does bad everything that makes a Pokémon adventure. Plus, all the controversies about the Pokédex, the animations and all that jazz.

5/10 to me. I don't rate it 4/10 because the basic combat and catching mechanics are correct and work as well as they always did.

You are profoundly disingenuous.

It's not bad, it's mediocre but fun.

As it is, I'd give it a 6/10.

It does a lot of things right:

• Gym Battles feel better than they ever have, even if they should be harder
• Pokemon variety is there from the get go
• Wild area is a lot of fun for all its flaws
• Music is fantastic

It also falls short in many areas:

• Story is non-existent
• Just as handholdy as S/M
• Hop is incredibly grating from start to finish, though he is improved by not appearing as much after the fourth gym
• Back half of the game has awful pacing (took me 4 hours to the first badge, 12 hours to get to the third, but I beat the league in only 20 hours total despite not rushing at all and going to the Wild Area a lot)
• Post-game is atrociously bad (an hour of content, that's it.)
• The game as a whole is way too easy (gym leaders should have teams of 6 with no exceptions, rivals should have teams of 6 by the third town, trainers should have more than one Pokemon on routes etc.) I appreciated the notable increase in AI strategy at points, but they should be given the tools to actually put up a fight.
• Raids are a great idea done pretty poorly (way too hard to connect to people, the AI trainers are atrocious as well)
• Routes are very badly designed linear corridors that feel incredibly outdated compared to not only the Wild Area, but also to past games.
• Dexit kills a lot of the post-postgame fun, making collecting and breeding a lot less fun to me.
• Animations are poor, most haven't changed since the 3DS.
• The Pokemon models are alright, but the textures need to be updated, they lack much of the character they had in the earlier games (this is an issue that the 3DS games had too)

As it is, I'd recommend it if you love Pokemon or are interested in getting into the series (stay far away from Let's Go), but it's disappointing to old fans.

The DLC seems like it will be fixing at least a couple of issues, I'm hopeful that the story content will be worthwhile too. The fact that it's being lead by a new director makes me happy.