You could compare every game out there with the graphic of scarlet and violet ist it would look mindblowing im comparison. Probably even bad games like the golum game.

I still don't think the graphic is especially good, but it's not slop, it seem they have put work into this. So as op suggest, the more important thing is now to fill the world with interresting stuff and also doesn't let the pokemon move like drones. Because in my opinion, the problem with scarlet and violet was not only the graphic and bugs, but also the open world and gameplay loop.

I'm not really a fan of open world game, for me a game could be completly linear, but the world design, open world or linear or something in between, doesn't make a good or bad game alone. Both kind of gameplay styles need something that makes them interesting.