So can anyone actually explain why Team Rocket returning is a bad thing without using the word 'pandering', which has by this point been used so many times on the thread that it's pretty much lost all meaning? Because it really just feels like you're -immediately- jumping on any reference or comeback as bad.
Basically, it's this:
The pandering can be bad because GF might forgot how and why Team Rocket worked and just lower them to the level of other evil teams. I don't want to see TR trying to take over the world or some other silly crap when that was never their thing.
Team Rocket was the Pokémon Mafia. Bad guys, thugs who exploited Pokémon for profit. They were violent and harsh, hid their activities behind a semi-legitimate business,
and they were successful. What made Team Rocket so great was that they were in the realm of plausibility. They had an iron grip on Kanto, made huge money, and succeeded in taking over a large company and even infiltrate the Indigo League. The player's role wasn't to thwart their plans for world domination, it was to loosen their grip on their home region.
All evil teams since have followed the same Saturday-morning-cartoon-villain formula: "They wil use this
legendary Pokémon to
threaten the world!" Ever since Gen III, it has always been world domination, destroying the world, changing the world, the world in balance, and the evil team abusing the power of legendary Pokémon has always been in the centre. Lofty villains with lofty plans, and it always hinges on a player to save the world. The stakes are dialled up to max to make the story more epic ("and therefore better, right?"), but they have been stuck on the "max" setting since Gen III. It honestly doesn't feel grand any more, and it doesn't feel believeable. Everything is at stake every time, therefore nothing is.
Team Rocket weren't lofty. They were direct, they were believeable, they had street-level plans, and they managed to execute them. Team Galactic couldn't realize their dream of creating a new universe. Lysandre couldn't destroy the world. Ghetsis didn't freeze more than a small city. But Giovanni ran a criminal empire who answered his every command, had operations in every city in the region, made tons of money, and walked away a free man when finally convinced to step down.
I, for one, fear that Game Freak will bring in Team Rocket for the nostalgia, but drag them down to the same level as modern evil teams. More goofiness, a more lofty plot, less ruthlessness and less believeability. You could never trust a Team Flare grunt to tie his shoes, but a Team Rocket grunt could very plausibly give you a solid beating, steal your Pokémon, and throw you off the pier. That's the image of Team Rocket I want preserved, preferrably by not tampering with it.