Honestly the crazy part about the Gen II hate brigade was Kanto was going to be even worse if we stuck with Tajiri's vision

>Gigantic ass city with one Gym that's supremely cumbersome to move around in and is completely pointless to explore because the gimmick of being the game's last region as a town meant there wasn't going to be many worthwhile secrets in the area

Masuda's still a hack, especially for how he chose to handle RS onwards, but Kanto feels a lot more magical as a small backyard to the whole new world you live in versus whatever the fuck that was going to be