Team Volt Grunt
Pokémon Collector
The elite four aren't that interesting when there is no real introduction or development behind them. Just walking into a room and battling a stranger that has a really powerful team compared to everyone else without any character development doesn't impress me as much as battling characters that have improved throughout the story and have given me reasons to want to beat them beyond being a mysterious and revered character.I completely disagree. The Elite Four provided two unique factors that the Champion Cup completely failed to replicate. First, the unique Elite Four characters. It's more interesting battling completely new characters as opposed to ones you've beaten several times over. And second is the challenge. The central identity of the Elite Four challenge is that it's a gauntlet. You have to defeat five of the strongest trainers in a row with no chance to rest. You have to be absolutely solid in your team or you're not going to win. Without that factor, the Champion Cup is just you facing some random trainers, business as usual. It's not interesting, it's not a challenge, it's not climatic.
I can agree about the challenge though. auto-heals between rounds and less rounds makes it much less challenging.