Recently fired up every pokemon game that came out on the switch to get my bearings. The games are infantile in their pacing and themes, which could be safely ignored if it wasn't for the piss poor performance married to an aging platform.
"But Pokemon games are for children" you might retort, and I agree with you. The problem is the franchise has been around for decades at this point, and has from the beginning been popular with non children. Nintendo and the Pokemon Company have mostly ignored this market segment because they'll still buy whatever they release, so it's no real skin off their back if that market segment continues to feel disenfranchised.
The people who made Palworld saw this market segment and simply did what people have been asking for for decades; an open world, real time 3D pokemon like game not married to a nintendo platform. While the details of how they achieved this are marred with poor business and artistic decisions along with questionable theming, I don't really get upset that most people are ignoring that and enjoying a game they've wanted for so long. Most people don't care about the artistic and legal side of game development, and you will always lose trying to make them care.