I reintroduced myself to Pokémon after US/UM came out, so my view of the games is as a former genwunner; though I have since played through every other generation to some extent.
I'm a big fan of Gen 7 generally. I liked the characters mainly, and the story as well (though I'll admit the Ultra games really seem to have gutted the drama of the 'Aether' family dynamic, as compared to S/M). I liked the challenge of the Trial battles, and the more competent AI. I liked the sheer number of different Pokémon available in the Ultra games - particularly all the Legendaries - as I'd missed out on quite a few generations of games, and had a lot of catching up to do. I also liked the scenery quite a bit; which I didn't think I would be all that into, going in. Also, there was so much to do sidequest-wise. There was a bloody TON of optional content in there, which I appreciate about any RPG.
There were things I didn't like, of course. The fact that S/M themselves seemed to have been released prematurely, only to be followed by the 'Ultra' versions; which appear to have been what the original games
should have been in many respects. The RotomDex's inane rambling; which you
must suffer through for all eternity, in exchange for those great power-ups. The linearity of pretty much the entire game was also pretty galling, considering how much they had already made it clear that they were pandering to young children throughout. This last bit seemed like adding insult to injury, in my opinion.
I dunno about you guys, but there were quite a few things I have changed my mind about since my first impressions of playing these games. Many of the characters grew on me with time, for instance. In fact, I've been meaning to write up an article for this forum about how my views of Team Skull changed throughout my first and subsequent playthroughs. I suppose I'd better do that before November, eh?