I don't think the challenge is bad, I just think it shouldn't be so punishing in unfun ways. Like not adding Fly because people say it makes the game too easy, and I don't get how, it makes it more tedious sure but where's the challenge in walking for hours to get somewhere? Sure you can get bikes and mounts for convenient travel but there's really no need to restrict something like that.

 

I feel the game can be challenging in other ways than bashing your head against a brick wall until you get past it, but that's just my 2c.

I had a hard time beating misty, but that only taught me that grinding xp is the best solution if you want to reliably clear the story. I was a little disappointed on kanto elite 4 too, as having a good/fotm team is almost mandatory, as i always enjoyed playing pokemon stories with trash poke (my exeggutor/sandslash/persian were too heavily carried by my fotm poke like gengar for my liking)

 

Anyways, a bit of difficulty was all i expected from the game and it made me enjoy it even more. The only thing i would ask for would be a better lvl curve on Jotho trainers/wild pokes.

I didn't do any trading until I got to Johto - I feel that Kanto is brilliant and not too difficult at all.