just realized you added something at the bottom of the post.
>What's the /vp/ consesus on it? Is there enough interest for a general?
from my experience /vp/ never cares that much about the fan-made mmo games but on rare occasions you can see some increased interest like with team FUG in pokemmo six years ago.

>Admittedly, I haven't played PokeMMO but I'm thinking about starting.
I personally think it's pretty fun and worth trying even if you only go through one or more of the story modes and then quit again because the adjusted difficulty and some of the original boss fights like Ho-oh are pretty cool.
do keep in mind that the endgame is almost entirely PvP or grinding for 1/30,000 rate shinies.