Spoiler free: I've only started playing and I love what they're trying to go for. I feel they did deliver on their promise of a more open world, plus we're not just stuck with eating curry: there's an array of food and drink in the shops to make us and our pokemon happy. Choosing how we look from the very beginning and not stuck with the default is phenomenal.
I can understand what people are saying about the graphics. The characters and pokemon have more detail and texture than the landscape. But I don't think that means the developers didn't try. Pokemon has never been known for being an open world medium. However, I'd much rather have a visually flawed game than a functionally flawed one where it couldn't play at all.
It'd be sweet if there were free updates to make the graphics look better. I look forward to the future of this game and the pokemon series as a whole.