I'm not a big fan of alolan forms for two reasons:
1) I feel it stole the space for new pokémon
2) I feel it stole the space of mega evolution
Also Alolan Exeggutor should be just a regular evolution of the original Exeggutor
I rather have 1500 original pokemon than 750 with a separate version each. If you ask someone how many pokemon there are, the answer still is almost 800. But in reality, there are almost 900 because GF's obssesed with forms/keeping that number low. I cannot understand why.
I respect your opinions, but I really can't understand it.
They're formes because they're basically the same especies. Making them evolutions or new Pokémons would be the lazy option, easily filling the Dex without much effort, but GF did not choose that way.
Instead of making only ~80 new Pokémons because they wanted to save Dex space and calling it a gen, they decided to make the same ~80, plus a dozen new formes for new Pokémon. (the numbers are just examples)
IMHO, very clever move, one of the best GF ever made, actually.
They can't steal the place of new Pokémons exactly because of that. Megas are a completely different thing, so there's no point in the comparison.
Also, a lot of people are obsessed with this "unique Pokémons" thing, but forget that Alolan/Regional variants are more creative than some "original Pokémons".
I have used this example a few times, but again: there's more creativity between Ninetales and A-Ninetales than in Volbeat/Illumise. I'd rather have Sandslash and A-Sandslash than having another Plusle/Minun. Also, A-Marowak is way more distinct from regular Marowak than Manaphy/Phione are from each other.
PS.: IMHO, Variants are WAY better than Megas. One can build a full Alolan formes team. Try doing that with Megas.
Also, people say that some variants had lazy/bad designs. I agree with that. But a lot of Megas did the same, were just "spiked" versions of the original Pokémons.