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Seeing lots of posts about battle difficulty. That's a red herring. The battles, aside from a very few specific fights like Whitney, Red, Cynthia, were never difficult in the old gens.
The AI was always simplistic, the advantage you had to switch was always overpowered. Pokemon battles, outside of Nuzlocke or romhacks like Blaze Black/Volt White, were never challenging like battling another trainer is.
But that's not what has changed. If you'll play through Red and Blue, you'll notice how many opportunities there are to get lost. Things like the bike voucher requiring you to explore Cerulean, Surf being at the back of a labyrinth without any indication that it's where you need to go to progress to Cinnabar. Later gens just throw these items at your character. Paths are railroaded instead of open, like in Lumiose City and the insipid blackout compared with Cerulean/Vermilion/Lavender/Celadon/Saffron's backtracking maze.
There's just a less complicated involved, responsive, immersive world to role play in. The overworld challenges that there are remain contained to their specific areas or are optional, and there's tons of boosters, like partners that continuously heal your team, specifically to help young kids along so they don't get frustrated at failure.
TEACH SURF TO YOUR WATER POKEMON TO PROGRESS. ITS IN THE HM/TM TAB UNDER HM03.
This handholding is what I like least about the new gens. The battle/breeding changes over the gens have actually created much more depth and balance competitively. But let's be honest. Their purpose for dumbing down the RPG aspect of the RPG is clear. There is no reason they would stop with it now.