I'm fine with the concept of pack running as long as there's the threat of losing your shit all the way to the trader. The ARcheAge system of running packs in dangerous areas gave that game legs.
I think they can phone it in TBM style and keep making a profit every year. I give them a pass on TBM though, since it was released through a company change.
If the roles were reversed he'd probably be more offended than me. Or not, I dunno.
I know when some dude was talking about my son dying or something dumb a bunch of moderators were offended for me.
Great feature. Not only does it help make your starter pokemon really useful like in the games, but also encourages "Go"ing, which is a motivation sorely lacking for a lot of serious players.