Serious question, what do you do in this game apart from wandering around and 'catch' pokemon without effort? like what's the purpose?

To catch them all...

Incredible.

Spent last 20 minutes chasing down a Starmie with random people on the street. It was more exciting than it shouldve been

Spent between 20-25 hours these last 4 days just walking around my city playing this. 
Kept running into the same people at Lures too

just that? no pre battle to be able to catch'em all, no battle with others, no gyms, no mini games...just walk and throw a pokeball?

So basically nothing that makes the pokemon games fun. I guess they will implement other things right? because I actually like the idea of the game but it just seem like a non finished product.

Same here XD god I love this game

I don't believe they deserve the applause. The game isn't good and it's only been successful because of how huge the IP has been over the years. I applaud them for great games like Splatoon and Zelda (both not my cup of tea, but undeniably great).

Pokémon has already help Nintendo when it was in difficulty... N64 gen...

Animal crossing could be a succès as well...

Now that Nintendo has got the smartphone market hooked, they need to make the new gen Pokemon only available on the NX.