I know very little about the gaming part of Pokemon. My experience with these characters is seeing them as cute little toys. I have to agree even without seeing this particular game firsthand that the adding of a plot rather than just over and over attacks would add new life to it. And I hear you re: character development as well.

If you want to see some great animation, check out some of the classic cartoons from Disney, Warner Brothers, Hanna Barbara, King Features, Merrie Melodies, etc.

From what your mom has said, I believe that you would be easily-capable of creating games with this level of animation (or close enough).

Finally, if the Pokemon community is becoming more toxic, it's definitely time to re-boot.