If somebody doesn't like the power items he/she simply doesn't have to buy them. You can make the game challenging for you by using weaker mons or something like that. I don't have time to kill 252 Tauroses to perfectly EV train my Azumarill for example. They just make everything faster. There's nothing challenging in spending half of your day in front of PC EV training a single mon. I like EV training and I've been doing it since I've started the game, it really helps, Charlotte still rekt me though. Some gym leaders should be buffed, like Serra, Terra, she's ridiculously weak, my Greninja completly destroyed her (khm Grass Knot). I found nerfed Noel weak, aswell as nerfed Aya (although she caught me off guard because of the field effect). If weaker gym leaders had EV trained mons I'm sure they wouldn't be such a pushover.