Starting with Generation 6, the starter Pokémon have seemingly adopted very distinctive personalities that almost seems to overshadow the animalistic or creature like elements to their designs. They seem like like monsters or creatures and more like characters with distinctive identities and traits… like can you actually imagine a Cinderace living in the wild? Unless you count a furry convention as “the wild” the answer is no lol. Obviously the fact that most of them stand up on 2 legs now doesn’t help, looking at Intelleon and Incineroar in particular whose poses seem distinctively human.
The last thing I’d like to bring attention to is that a lot of the starters seem to be wearing “clothes” now and it’s just so off putting. Remember the atrocities known as Sawk and Throh, 2 of the objectively worst designed Pokémon in history? Yeah… Cinderace looks like it’s in a Tracksuit, Incineroar’s wearing a belt, and Intelleon has got very human hands and a suit. I’d like to draw attention to Intelleon in particular because it isn’t the first water starter to be well dressed, Empoleon also seemed to be wearing a suit as well. The difference is that Empoleon did have the same uncomfortably humanoid and characterized appearance of Intelleon and looks like a creature that could actually be found swimming in the Arctic Ocean of the Pokémon world. Empoleon’s appearance is regal no doubt, but it doesn’t box into a singular character role like Intelleon does (a spy). The newer starters feel like dream works or Pixar characters, there appearance is meant to explicitly indicate a set personality or characteristic and that completely overshadows the more natural elements of their design.
It’s just such a shame really, up until Gen 5 when Emboar came along (who is just ugly and unoriginal, not really the same issue as what I’m discussing here) I wouldn’t be able to single out a single starter final form that I explicitly disliked. Nowadays I find myself being disappointed or completely put off by most of them (Chesnaught, Delphox, Incineroar, all of the Galarian ones).
To put my feelings into a sentence, when I think of Charizard I think of a dragon. When I think of Cinderace I don’t think of a rabbit, I think of a soccer player.