I find it weird you just have some giant-ass version of know pokemon running around but then I realize I am talking about pokemon and just chuckle.

Don't take my word on it, but I feel the success of Breath of the Wild forced pokemon devs to make the roaming of the game to be the way it is. Some Japanese games sometimes are stuck in the past but even them move forward, and it helps when they are moving forward following the steps of another Japanese game.