I'm more of a roleplayer when it comes to pokemon (play multiple games as if it's the same person traveling to different reasons), though I really got into competitive battling last March since Gen 8's whole motif is about sports & competition. I used to hate it because of stuff like Smogon's rules & tiers, and I would never win in casual matches since so many people spammed teams of shiny legendaries, but after giving it a chance I was able to see the appeal. It was challenging at first, but it was fun coming up with so many strategies with my roleplaying to overcome my opponents.
However, I'm kind of taking a break from it for a while partly because I've been struggling with winning ever since the Crown Tundra came out, & partly because I was a little obsessed with it for a while & I needed to focus on other priorities. Plus, I have a habit of getting really competitive whenever I'm in a losing streak, so I felt it's just not worth it.