zelda would be steak, while pokemon is just a hamburger.
Zelda is a $5 steak, pokemon is a $5 hamburger. They're not the same thing and snobs want the steak anyway but they're the same value.
There is much more game design work in any Zelda or any Mario made by Nintendo EAD than in any Pokemon. Gamefreak was never a Nintendo studio and never made Nintendo EAD quality games.