I like what zeltrax said, "What you desire from the game differs for each individual".
I was looking through Bogleech's (creator of webcomic Awful Hospital and gave ratings to each Pokemon design from gens 1-7) stuff the other day and he didn't like the dex cuts and won't play the games because the main and pretty much only reason he plays Pokemon is to build a team made up of his top 6 favorites. He doesn't play for competitive or the world of Pokemon itself, just for creating his top 6 team of currently existing Pokemon, which he's adjusted with each gen.Two of the Pokemon he wanted for his team didn't get in the Galar dex, and that was enough for him to decide not to get the games. He said he would've rather they removed the storyline, battling, or anything else.
Whereas for me, I'm still looking forward to the games because most of the criticisms are about things that don't apply to what I'll use or do in my playthrough. So while I'm not like Bogleech there, since we care about different things, I thought it was neat how people can play for so many different reasons, and especially how he said he would've rather battling be removed than Pokemon obtainability stood out to me. Personally, battling and combat in games in general isn't high on the list of why I play. I love exploration. In every game I play, I talk to every NPC, I go to all the optional places, I examine all the bookcases and trash cans and so forth. One of the reasons Hoenn is one of my favorite regions is because it had so many side places like the Abandoned Ship/Sea Mauville that you could visit. I like getting a feel for each place's atmosphere and learning about its history. Abandoned places especially are exciting because of all the possibilities for reasons why the place was abandoned and the air of mystery around them.
Challenging fights is something I've never really looked forward to in games, because unless it's something like an open-world game where you can come back to a hard battle once you're more prepared, you're almost always locked out of further exploration and story until you get past the fight. So difficult fights and puzzles are like being stuck on a homework problem to me: I just want to finish it so I can move on and do things I actually enjoy, but I'm stumped and feel like I've hit a wall. While I've seen people who don't care for the competitive scenes of games and prefer to just play the single-player experience, I've rarely seen people who aren't enthusiastic about challenge or difficulty at all like I am, so I felt something at "would've rather they removed battling" part, even though I don't know whether Bogleech likes challenging battles and just prioritizes teambuilding or doesn't care for them at all.
I also like some of the side features: Amie/Refresh, Mantine Surfing, contests, and tend to spend a lot of time on those too.
While I think there were some bad decisions made, I agree with that on a logical level, but I don't feel most of them on an emotional level, and that second part is why I'm still looking forward to Sword and Shield. The dex cuts are going to hit people who have Pokemon they've been transferring from game to game to stick with them for over a decade or whose favorites didn't make it in, but I've never been able to transfer Pokemon after Gen 4's Pal Park. Not being able to turn off the EXP Share I don't understand why they'd go from optional to mandatory, that seems backwards especially since plenty of people don't want to use it, but I play with it on. Locking the sound control item behind an optional NPC is ??? but I don't think I'd use it anyway. The Charizard fanservice annoys me, but if it was enough to make me not have fun or look forward to playing, I would've been like that for XY too.
From reading the reviews and seeing screenshots, the critique that's going to affect my playstyle the most is
! Most areas being short and linear, identical houses in cities, etc. since as I mentioned exploration is a big reason why I play. From the trailers, I was really looking forward to exploring that cave with the Christmas lights, and hopefully I'll still enjoy it.
There are some other changes and features I'm looking forward to, like wild Pokemon in the overworld with the option of engaging them or not, more trainer customization options, and I think a few other things that aren't coming to mind at the moment.