Also all the Pokemon from previous Gens were still in the code, they just had to be traded in from games that came out later in Gen 3.
This is one of the more 'ehhhhhhhh' counterpoints to me. I mean, on the player end, the difference is minimal - in both cases, the full dex isn't possible until another item or two is released. (In fact, there's Pokemon exclusive to 1 of all 5 gen 3 games, not counting ho-oh exc to coliseum and lugia exc to gale 'cos they're available by events.
If you're wondering, Lunatone in Saph, Zangoose in Ruby, a bunch of Johtos in Emerald, Elekid line and others in Leafgreen, Magmar line and others in FireRed.) To make a decent attempt at filling the dex by yourself, you'd need to buy two games at least, if not three.
Having the data not in the game until the patches essentially creates the same result directly. Ruby/Sapphire needed all the data in them from day one, there was no 'dlc' mechanic.
Re: the moves, the big thing for me has always been 'if you can't cut anything, how the hell can you balance the game?' Pokemon's biggest pull to a new game is an ever-expanding roster of mons - inevitably, some are brokefuck. If you can't cut mons, and you can't even cut moves, how the hell can you ever hope to even pretend to balance the game over time?
Yeah because all the moves missing are as negligible as Bide. Looking at the list of moves there are a lot moves that are missing are the "complicated" ones like the ones that vary in strength based on friendship, do damage based on the user's level, or otherwise have strange qualifiers like Pursuit. Hell Bide falls into that category as well. This makes it seem like even more laziness on GF's part more so than any sort of balancing or fat trimming that they might pretend it is.
The moves are a mixed bag, but acting like them focusing on just the mechanically complex moves isn't really accurate - a lot of the cut moves have mechanical equivalents. Sonicboom and Dragon Rage are gone, but Seismic toss is in. Jump Kick's not in, but High Jump Kick is. Ominous Wind is out, by Ancient Power is in.
And I've had people talk to me, being quite happy that the moves were cut, because of things like Hidden Power. After all, hidden power gives special users literally any type attack they want, and the more recent games had made the iv sacrifice easily ignorable. Some even manage to top it off with Technician. Then there's return - a staple, but a staple because it could reach BP 127 - just slightly below moves like Fire Blast, with none of the drawbacks. And any mon could learn it.
There's definitely cases where they targeted mechanics - all of the moves attacking sleepers are gone - but acting like it's out of being too lazy to program mechanics isn't really grounded.
