As player like you i can disagree with you. Since my first acc is made in 2015 i know what was back there.
Mention economy:
1 - there is guidance for almost everything in game, every player with some brain will do story on all regions for like 3 days if you play smart. You can buy story Pokémon under 40k .
With good management of your money you can end with something in like 4-6 days (bike + fs ,sync Pokémon and etc) and you can start early bosses.
2- All the pvp items are way cheaper than the price back then. Also in almost every decent shop you can buy PvP Pokémon for small money . You can buy very usable Pokémon under 300k, some even PvP made.
3 - you have 2-3 times more events than in 2015 , you can hunt for forms, pvp Pokémon's and sell them. Also many events give opportunity to earn pve coins with you can turn into cash
4 - dungeons. They help a lot with rr and other stuffs
About PvP
If you have the experience to speak for that kind of matter, im sure you know how to break the meta and put your work into something creative,fun and well working, so you can have fun vs every copy ( stall and whatever you mentioned above). Or to start guild and make new generation of players that can think out of the box.
At the end - ofc everything can be improved but let's not blame the game for our lack of creativity.
You can have fun playing many ways, (be part of PvP guild or pve)do many things (lead guild, help players,do dungeons, make events)and put some effort in it.
Or just join the beggars part of the community (because we all love them)