Even though it’s hard to go back, I think Gen I is still quite good. I replayed Red maybe 3ish years ago, and had a great time. It’s just that it’s very rough around the edges until I’m used to it again.

The main thing that made me bring it up actually was remembering going back after playing GSC, and really missing the in-battle exp bar.

I’m surprised to hear you didn’t like the physical/special split, I think it makes much more sense the new way.

That split was great, the sp. atk/def split is very good, hold items and abilities added a lot. Inventory management got a lot better in later games. And monster sprites did too, although the bad sprites in Gen 1 have a lot of charm and nostalgic appeal of their own.