Emerald Rogue v2 definitely feels like a "2" and not a "1.5." Being able to use all the protagonists with whatever skin and clothes color palettes you want is really cool. Having wild Pokemon be on-screen wandering encounters is really cool for being sure you've seen what all the encounters in an area are, making pathing a little more interesting, and actually seeing when roaming Legendaries are popping up. New encounters like Catching Contests and Team Hideouts (lots of trainers, TMs, and nature mints) are rad. It's also nice that you don't need to complete a run with the Emerald dex before unlocking all the Pokemon now.
My last one wiped after the 4th Gym Leader because I am not a Pokemon expert and I put the Diverse Teams option anyway for fun and/or challenge. So now Gym Leaders have 1-2 Pokemon of other types, e.g. Fighting-specialist Maylene had Bronzong, Klefki, Toxicroak, Breloom, and Medicham. The longest-surviving member of my team was a Minior who would just drop a Stealth Rock, buff it's defenses, and then lightly chip away with moderate damage and somehow was always ignored by the trainer AI.