Probably because many people loved BOTW and it was wildly successful, both critically and financially. So there's clearly a market for that style of game among Switch users.
Sure, but I'm interested in getting a good Pokémon game. I don't care what the market wants. Of course, the market will win, that's how all franchises get ruined.
You are right, the combat is crap, durability sucks. But the 'world' is mainly what i was referring to, the visuals and journey. Not the combat.
/uodtl is right about all of those things. I admit i never actually finished BoTW but I spent 100+ hours in it, so it was worth my money. I've seen this image on r/gaming where it shows a BoTW like panoramic view, but with your pokemans. That is what everyone wants!
I would love to have a DS1 like journey but it's unlikely for a pokemon. Maybe a spinoff pokemon. You know how many people arrive and firelink and spends hours dying to skellies? This pokemon version would need to put level 30 pokes hanging nearby Rt. 101. And there would be some crazy backdoor route to go from starting area straight to elite 4 :p
A different combat system, maybe? The Dark Souls model relies heavily on player skill/dexterity as well as (or more than) pure numbers; there's plenty of room for other models to support something like that.
A first-person or third-person action model doesn't fit Pokemon very well because it doesn't position the player as the trainer, but you could do a turn-based grid like Fire Emblem, or a turn-based/real-time grid-fighter thing like MMBN, or an overhead-camera action-y thing (Diablo, most MOBAs, etc). Integrating battles into the world more (environmental things - climb trees, dig holes, hide behind rocks) could also help.
I meant Zelda, but a pokemon game that's less linear would be good.
you could add high level pokemon in easily accessible areas, but position the pokemon centers to make getting stuck extremely hard. Make the gyms harder but make the order flexible.