>>714677551
I'm pretty sure "so many people" aren't saying that, the majority of people are normies who aren't that well informed about the state of the franchise and its games/other media at any given time, they just jumped off the Pokemania train around the 2001-2002 point, which led to Ruby/Sapphire being less popular as a result, rather than R/S themselves being the explanation for the decline.