Not fond of them (seemingly in response to the SWSH graphics backlash?) deciding to do a more "realistic" approach to the art style by adding some textures and having bare sculpted 3d models that react to the natural lighting in a muddy and undefined way... this is a game about anime characters and cartoon creatures, it should look crisp and stylized in a quality cel shade-y cgi style that emulates the look of good 2d art (like for example the newer fire emblem games, or zelda breath of the wild)

a naturalistic cgi art style looks great if there's a big budget, lots of time and a powerful console/pc, but i dont think its a good fit for a series like pokemon... A good anime emulation art style can go a long way in making the game look aesthetically pleasing even if there is no time to polish the entirety of it. Sword and Shield was criticized to hell and back but the character models all looked really nice and had some fun, colorful character designs; really hope they return to an approach like that in future games... Unfortunate that they seem to have taken the wrong lesson from the backlash, i dont think anyone was complaining about the art direction, just about it not being polished enough because they likely didnt have the time in that short development cycle.