Those games are not RPGs in the sense that the handhelds are. They are much smaller games and they are glorified Stadium games. Don't put them in the same catagory as the handhelds, because they're not.

I never said people would be pissed off. The question was about mainstream appeal, whom it would do the opposite of "pissing off." The question isn't who is pissed off the least, but rather how can we get more people interested? And Pokemon, by the very nature of the series, would benefit very little from hyper-naturalistic visuals, especially those we see in the OP. I personally, wouldn't mind seeing pokemon games that look like the animation, with fluid animations, clear and crisp art design, large open worlds, and overall great effects. Okami, Dragon Quest VIII, Windwaker, and Valkyria Chronicles, are all games that have succeeded with this style, and I think it works perfectly for pokemon. I've always found the style in the home console games boring (and by today's standards - ugly), and I was glad X and Y didn't follow them. 

Oh, well. Eventually I will change the poll to see what artstyle people would like. Let's hope this thread doesn't die off to soon then.

My point was that the realistic visuals didn't make them sell better, and that art-style is secondary to other aspects (such as you noted.) 

You don't have to. I was just tell you what I'd like personally. :P 

I was going to change the poll (when enough people have voted on the current poll, that we can call it the general opinion) to see what artstyle people would like anyway. But the thread is probably dead by then.

Now might be a good time to mention that I never played Pokémon but the idea of a console game, based on what I know of the series has intrigued me since the late 90's.

Would you be more intrigued by the visuals in the picture in the OP, or a more anime like, kind of cartoon-ish approach?

The visuals weren't realistic... Like, not even remotely close...

The execs at gamefreak are so terrified of taking risk for fear of losing money that the mainline games have deviated slower from the formula then continental drift, the home consoles games are the only time we might get a real exploration, hopefully game freak will finally decide to make one of these spinoffs into an actual game rather than a glorified toy advertisement (Rumble U)

Seriously, Gameplay should be the most important graphics be damned, it should target 80fps, Open world, with good artstyle, and abs, with a story like that of Pokemon Adventures.

Hell, let us make our own characters and play against the heroes like Red, Blue, Green, Yellow, etc.

Call it Pokemon Heroes, sell an anime with it, Done, Billions sold.