400 + the new ones. That's quite a healthy number, I'd say.

If I end up skipping this game it certainly won't be because of the number of Pokémon.

400 including the new ones, so ~305 old ones.

Inb4 Magikarp splash attack is OP

As far I recall, Sun/Moon, the previous gen, had a little over 300 Pokemon to catch in-game, however you also had the ability to trade across other gens to bring other Pokemon into the game. They wouldn't be counted into your Pokedex, but you could still use them in-game and competitively (as far as I know...as I really don't play competitive Pokemon). If these 400 all exist in-game...than as far as I can tell its an upgrade for me personally.

I wouldn't say the issue the OP is concerned about is a complete non-issue...but I think the issue does get a misrepresented somewhat. I can't speak for every game, but the entire National Dex doesn't generally exist in the game world itself, if you really planned to collect the entire series' catalog of Pokemon the last few generations, you'd be forced to endure quite a bit of tedium to trade across your previous games, or use the in-game trading feature to collect them from people online. So while its true the game is missing content, I question how much of that content is really valuable outside of the competitive fanbase, or certain players that like to use a select pre-determined team every game.

I do hope the game gets an update to allow the rest of the catalog to be traded into the game for those players above, but as someone who is generally only concerned with the game world itself, its looking pretty promising to me.

There is rumor that once you beat the game the pokedex expands to over 600. I don't remember the exact number cause I've been dodging spoilers as best I can. Either way, if this 600 thing is true or not, well it is what it is. Disappointing but whatever

What was the most pessimistic predictions?

I don't really care about the returning Pokemon, since I just focus on creating a team from mons exclusive to the region. Honestly rather have a more extreme version of Black/White approach, each generation with its own exclusive Pokedex and don't have returning Pokemon.

Paying more for less. If this is successful, it's going to be a horrible precedent for the series. We won't ever have all of the mons ever again. Shameful.

Dayum, I expected 100-200 being cut. Guess I'm still underestimating Gamefreak's incompetence.

Why "but whatever" though? Why settle for laziness and mediocrity when you could just not and instead get a game that actually has effort put into it? Just curious is all, it's your money so you're free to do what you want with it.

Jfc in my day i wss happy with 150