“Pokemon used to be based on real animals, now they’re not!” is a weird argument to me because, not only is it wrong and stupid and dumb, and it’s stupid, but I’d actually argue the opposite is more accurate

A lot of Pokemon in Gen 1 were based on animals only in very superficial ways, whereas a lot of recent Pokemon are very explicitly, unmistakably inspired by real live animals

For example, here’s the Gen 1 versions of a frog, a bear, and a mole

And here’s the Gen 5 versions of a frog, a bear, and a mole