Bolt the Cat
Bringing the Thunder
You say people are a little justified in their anger because the game they wanted has been ruled out but if people wanted a third version of Alola, they're getting it, they wanted a game that expanded on the role of Necrozma and that's exactly what US/UM is (from teaser stuff anyway). What more do they want, is it just the "Stars" brand that they wanted, did they want a basic "third version" of the game instead of something a bit different or is it something else entirely because I can't understand the anger from people who wanted Stars, at least not completely.
I don't think people wanted a basic third version like this, I think the reason so many people clung to the Stars rumor is because they're desperate for a Switch game and don't want to wait the usual 2 years into the console's lifespan to see one. Which is also a bit greedy and impatient but I can understand it because of Pokemon's business model, it's very generation based and consists of multiple games on the same hardware, so having situations like this where Game Freak is a perpetually late adopter to new hardware and supporting the older hardware longer than any other IP doesn't really seem smart for business and marketing. In this kind of business model, you're going to want the hardware generation life cycle to align with the Pokemon generation life cycle, and it really hasn't. And personally, having a 7th generation on the 3DS in 2016 never really sat well with me in the first place, not when we didn't even get a third version/sequel/whatever for XY. Having that in 2016 and SM on the Switch in 2017 would've been a bit better for them in the long run, I think. But unlike the Stars rumor believers, I knew once SM was announced, we'd be sticking with the 3DS for a little while longer.
Now as for how much content they expect out of a third version, it's pretty clear that no one really wants a regular third version anymore, the entire business model is based on selling you pretty much the same game all over again which isn't very consumer friendly and the only people that are really interested in them are people that either didn't play the original or don't mind spending an extra $40 to replay the game. Furthermore, BW2 has really raised the bar for this series and shown people that Game Freak can make a game taking place in the same region that isn't just a cynical rehash of the original game, and when people saw that they thought that it would be the new standard for these kinds of games instead of being a one off meant to make 5th gen look different. And BW2 style is already out the window judging by this region map, the region is 99% the same as SM which implies not much changes to the game and probably the same adventure all over again. If this game was like BW2, we'd know it immediately because we could see a ton of new areas and a ton of areas that have had significant, highly visible changes.
You then have the people who wanted Gen IV remakes and I'm sorry but I find those people to be amazingly delusional when it comes to that. The gap between HS/SS and OR/AS was 5 years and 2 generations and now people want the next set of remakes to come out only 3 years after the previous one and in the next generation no less; at least FR/LG being Gen 3, it still took 7 years until we get HG/SS so to not only anticipate but to demand that we get Gen IV remakes only 3 years after the last set of remakes is kind of pushing it. Again, I do believe they're coming but I still think it'll be Gen VIII (it goes along with the numerical theming since you had 1-3, 2-4 and 3-6 so 4-8 makes a bit more sense).
Yeah, the DP remake camp don't really have much of an excuse, that game is inevitable, but probably not happening until 8th gen. Whining for remakes has pretty much always been a thing as long as remakes themselves have been a thing, after FRLG were released we started seeing demands for GS remakes until HGSS finally came out, and then the same with RS remakes until ORAS. Now we're to the point where people are wanting DP remakes. Trust me, this is never going to end, even after DP remakes come out then we're going to see constant demand for BW remakes and so on ad nauseum with every region until the series ends.
I don't think fans should just accept whatever GF puts out or say it's amazing (I myself have issues with Black/White as well as Sun/Moon for being too story heavy and too linear) but I don't think this level of hate is deserving for these games, they're just the third version of Alola but with a slight spin on it. You don't have to like them but I don't think this negativity is, as you call it, a natural consequence. As you mention, people get worried if they fear certain elements of a previous game won't carry over to the next one but hasn't one of the major criticisms of the Pokemon games been that they're too formula-based, at least when it comes to game mechanics; the fighting's the same, the plots are generally the same, the goals are the same (collect a number of "badges", become champion) so unless people are worried about the more game-specific elements, like changing your appearance or Pokemon following you around (which I will never, ever understand why that's such a big thing with people, I don't get why people act as if that one feature is an absolute must) then I don't think they have much to worry about. Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon will play just like every other Pokemon game before it with slight differences and almost nothing removed from Sun/Moon (because the assets are already there, why remove them). Pokemon has basically been the same game for 21 years and still it has a large fanbase, it still has a large adult fanbase who started with Red/Blue so I don't get why this game is the tipping point, it's nothing we haven't seen before so what makes it special, what seperates this game from Platinum or Emerald or Crystal that is making the fans claim this is where they draw the line. If they fear change, then why worry when you've been given no reason to assume great change and if they fear more of the same then again, I go back to my previous question.
There's a difference between being too formulaic and blatantly ignoring opportunities for improvement. Introducing something that has a profound effect on the main gameplay and then promptly removing it impedes the series' progress and makes every game feel like it's just going around in circles. Uniqueness is good to a degree, but people also want to see the formula progress and learn from past games. Game Freak needs to strike a more careful balance here, not just throw everything but the core formula out the window the next game.
I feel part of the problem is this mentality of "It was ok then but not now", you see it with how people react to new Pokemon and how the designs look uninspired but when anyone brings up the simplicity of older designs, you get the line of "It was ok back then but now they should have higher standards" even though we're nearing 1,000 Pokemon and for the most part, they've made all of them look fairly unique and kind of cool (excluding your mainstays like the Pikachu look-alike) and so I think that people are more forgiving of "third versions" from the past because that was the past but now they should be doing something bigger and better even though we're now at a point where alternate universes are a thing, story is getting more focus (I'd say a bit too much focus) and I personally feel that the series has matured in some aspects but I guess in some cases, people only look at the surface level and that's it.
Thing is that people's expectations naturally raise with improvements in technology and changing attitudes. Look at BotW, would you have ever expected to see a game like that in say, 1995? Of course not, games back then weren't capable of something large and meaty on that scale so no one really expected it, but now that we have hardware that is capable of running a game that large, let alone handhelds that are capable of running a game that large, gamers now expect more games on that scale. Same with Pokemon, with hardware like the 3DS and Switch people expect much more now than they did back in the day because there's much more that's possible with hardware that large.
Then there's BW2, which is a good example of changing attitudes. Game Freak said with BW2 that the game would be too predictable, so they came up with a sequel which changed a lot more than the usual third version. But now that they've done that, people now expect them to apply that same philosophy to the entire series and make games like USUM and even expected something like ORAS (which is not a third version, but still a revisit to an old region) to be equally unpredictable. So now regressing to what past generations did is seen as a disappointment, since Game Freak has shown they want to and are capable of more than what they did back then.