Verdanturf and Fallarbor Towns sure are nice. Quite, peaceful, rural, beautiful, exactly the kind of towns I would want to live (ignore the part where I wouldn't want to live anywhere in Hoenn besides maybe Shoal Cave because it's too damn hot). You know what they need?
A BATTLE TENT FOR HIGH-SKILLED POKEMON BATTLING TO SERVE AS ADVERTISEMENT FOR A HUGE COMPLEX OUT IN THE OCEAN DEDICATED SOLELY FOR BATTLE OF THE HIGHEST DEGREE. WOW EPIC!
Fuck you, NPC who says the Battle Tent is the only reason anyone would visit Verdanturf. I want to visit there to find housing so that I am no longer visiting.
With how invasive the Battle Tents feel (except in Slateport, it feels correct there), the Battle Frontier being aggressively unwelcoming to casual players, and Scott having very shady undertones (one of the NPCs in the Frontier even wonders if Scott had some ulterior motive for building the place), I can't help but feel that the whole thing was designed to be... not evil, but like, corruptive of what Pokemon is supposed to be. Like you were supposed to pick up on the cognative dissonence between "have fun with your Pokemon friends" and "optimize or perish" and choose not to engage with the Frontier at all. But then why even put in the game in the first place?