yo, so with the recent VGC controversy I wanted to talk about it
IMO it's more nuanced than just "make it super easy to get mons in-game or allow genning", which in of itself is a hot take, but the hotter take is just I think TPC is correct to ban people for genning. Not because oh I hate them or they aren't skillful, people like Brady Smith are skilled and I do not disrespect people for genning, I just think there are core assumptions in the conversation that are incorrect.
The motto of the series is "Train On." they want you to have to train your Pokemon, but that's obviously not wanted by the players who have to make so many teams in order to make it far. I also think people are disingenuous when they say genning is not cheating.
Because time is an advantage at a high enough level, being able to test more teams and tweak quicker is a major advantage, like:
Who is more likely to win?
1. The guy who spent 100 hours battling to find their best team, spending 20 minutes at most between play sessions to gen Pokemon
2. or the guy who spent 15 or so hours making their first team, playtested for 5 hours, tweaked, played another 5 hours, realized it sucks, starts over, spend another 20 hours making a new team, retry on the ladder, oh you're getting bad luck with practicing the team against weird ass matchups, ok now this needs a tweak grind again
I'd hope this makes it clear how being able to have all of your teams in a split second is an advantage, because teambuilding is a skill especially in a tournament like VGC's where you cannot spend a week making a new team and prepping for your opponent. You need a shit ton of practice not just to find the team you want, but also in order to train yourself at piloting the team against different matchups. This takes a lot of time, and having to spend time tweaking or making a team is a significant time loss that otherwise could be spent practicing.
The real debate shouldn't be "is genning cheating". For one, cheating is arbitrary term, but the base assumption is that cheating means an unfair advantage. Unfair could be considered going around the rules. Cheating can be defined in a tournament not just because it's a dick move, but because said tournament says to not do x, y, z. In my opinion, genning is by definition cheating. It is not cheating inside the actual battle; it is cheating in preparation.
In this multi-step game, you have to make the ultimate recipe and win against others with it. To test the recipe, first you have to cook it. But I just got my friend Carl to get me a cake exactly as I said despite the fact that the tournament says, "Do not ask Carl to make a cake for you". Still, I do it anyways because it's an advantage and I don't like waiting for the cake to cook, and I test the recipe. I realize it sucks, and I ask Carl to make another cake.
My opponent is still making the first cake, and still is at the store buying ingredients.
The real debate should be, do we accept that training is a part of the game? And the popular answer, simply, is no. When people say "genning is not cheating", they are definitionally deciding that training is not a skill. Preparing your team is not a skill and is not tested in the actual competition that matters, how well you pilot the team, and what team it is.
Game Freak and The Pokemon Company want training to be a part of the competition, because it's part of the RPG, you have to play with more mechanics. You have to breed, grind money, do Tera Raids, etc. etc. In a way it's like an MMO in The Pokemon Company's eyes, and before playing PVP you have to go back and interact with all of these nuanced systems before you even have a chance. Sword and Shield made this even more blatantly obvious by making the game 10FPS when you run it online, by showing you a bazillion other trainers moving around the overworld, most likely training their own Pokemon.
Really, in a way, genning is a cultural battle and it's not between He Who Shall Not Be Named and the competitive players. It's between the game itself and the players. The players who are interested in Smogon or VGC want the game to be about battling, which is the part they find most interesting. It's not like these are shiny hunters, they want to battle. Game Freak, the designers, have an interest in making the game more well-rounded. They want you to interact with all of the branches of the game, as much as they possibly can edge you towards it.
But, I don't think there is no audience for this. Look at MMOs like PokeMMO, which are way harder to grind out a team than the main series games, even probably compared to the actual Black and White, especially if you want shinies. It is similarly a game that wants you to grind and interact with all of the mechanics, and it has survived for around 10 years. PokeOne is another fanmade MMO and similarly keeps an audience of competitive battlers who play within the bounds and see training as part of the game.
So, I don't think there is any perfect solution, but I have one that I can borrow from Temtem, an MMO Pokemon-like that I think has a lot of good ideas, regardless of how you feel it is quality wise (please don't quote this part of the post, I don't care!)
Temtem has three major branches of PVP play. Temtem Ranked, Temtem Showdown and Temtem Tournaments. All of these provide varying levels of time to put in before you can play.
Temtem Ranked: Your Temtem are given full IV-equivalent but not EVs, items, moves or abiltiies. This is up to you, but also removes the main problem stopping you from bringing your Temtem from the main playthrough, or needing to breed for literal hours, from being able to play with your actual in-game collection. Temtem Showdown lets you play against, to my knowledge, exclusively other Temtem Showdown players, who all are able to use teams like you would Pokemon Showdown. Tournaments are also held on Temtem Showdown, but...
The official, most real Temtem tournaments for the main game require in-game built teams. Including breeding for IVs. This means that every type of player is rewarded in some way. Those who don't care don't even need to buy the game, they can just play, just don't expect to be able to play against those who put in like 20 hours to craft their perfect team. Those who don't want to grind for hours of breeding can still play with imperfect Temtem in ranked, and you also get practice with teams without needing to put in 20 hours before you know you like the team.
I think this is the best solution personally, let me know what you all think, I put a good amount of time into this post.