Yes, yes it would. They meant to say that it would improve performance (if done well, which it was). That improved performance would allow it to run on a wide variety of devices, including those with low specs.
Also at the time writing for x86 only would have been plenty portable. Even today that would cover “standard” PC architecture. (Although nowadays you probably want to put it on mobile devices, gaming consoles or macOS, so not ideal.)
I’ve been playing since launch, although admittedly not much the past few weeks, and I think it’s fun depending on what you find fun.
I’ve never been big on the Battling (PvP or Raiding) but I’ve enjoyed the “Catch 'em All”.
I do however agree that even the “catch” part of the game is poorly put together. For example while the game may contain 800+ Pokemon, realistically you can only ever catch ~30 different species at a given time. If you started a new account today and did ALL the activities available, really grinding for a month, you’d probably only have ~200 or so Pokemon. If you played for a year, maybe double that.
For this reason why isn’t Pokemon HOME considered the game with the most Pokemon?
During a camp scene both Gale and Karlach (and Shadowheart) offered to spend the evening with me.
I spoke with Gale first (at random) and his spend the evening was just “show some magic” which I didn’t realize was code. Karlach made no mention of Gale but did a fist pump when I agreed. When I finally spoke with Shadowheart she mentioned that I already had plans (unless?).
Then the Gale romance scene happened and Karlach never brought it up again. Nearly everyone else in the camp gave me a romance option and Karlach and I had a nice moment after fixing her heart the second time, but I think it’s just broken.
Additionally Shadowheart has always had the romance option since it first appeared. I skipped it since we’re just homies, but I think Karlach is locked out for me.