Gen 6 and Gen 7 had such good Pokemon...because there were less and there was more emphasis on quality rather than quantity. It shouldn't come to surprise at all that the Pokemon felt more memorable as a result. They could afford to go this route since there was already 500+ Pokemon in the dex, so adding another 100 Pokemon wasn't exactly necessary, and they could be more careful and clever with design. Gen 1 couldn't, it needed the quantity as the first title in the series.
There are about as many good Pokemon in Gen 7 as Gen 1, because Gen 1 had so many. And I'd say at least 40 of the Gen 1 Pokemon had good design.
It's kind of unfair to make these comparisons unless you condense the sample size of Gen 1...and you can't.