I agree in a way, but i feel more like a Pokemon MMO would work by providing something the offline game doesn't, which there is a market for. I know a Pokemon MMO would be hard to do, and frankly asking how it can be done is a loaded question thats only asked just so someone can validate their hate for the idea because frankly, I'm no game developer, I've not go all the answers, in the end, I simply believe the idea could work with the proper brain-trust and developers behind the wheel. My ideas were more spitballs of how It could be, a proof of concept that some aspects could be converted, and how one might go about handling the typical MMO crap like Gearing, Uniqueness, diversity, and so forth.
I mean, I don't expect some Pokemon developer to come in, read my post, and go "Copy and paste it to an MMO now". It would be hard to convert it, without a doubt, and honestly it might not be worth the effort and risk of hurting the image of the IP if the game crashes, I only believe that that it could be done right, and it could be done well. How and why I'm not 100% on, because If i was, I'd be devoting time to getting a college degree and making my own game company . Plus, I will admit one of the biggest things is gamers have no idea what the hell they want, so the idea of a Pokemon MMO could simply be the want for a large scale Online Pokemon experience in a truly 3D, good graphic world. LIke a FPS with a Multiplayer mode where you can have a Co-Op kinda experience running around with friends doing your own thing.
I think people just want to be in a Pokemon world with other players, even if its just 3 people (I mean, you could do 3v3 Battles or Double battles in a co-op scenario). They might not want a truly MMO experience, just the ability to be in a immersive Pokemon world with a friend. Even if its together, but separate gameplay.
Remember the "Gales of Darkness" or whatever gamecube games? Why can't they make a fully 3D game with Pokemon like that? I think the big problem is the amount of Pokemon they'd have to program in, I can't think of very many other games that have over 700 unique, fully animated 3D Sprites...