I think that I understand why Nintendo filed that patent
This has been made aware to me a few days ago, but I didn't pay much attention to it until Eurogamer reached out to Don McGowan, former chief legal officer at The Pokémon Company, for his opinion.
So, my conclusion of the matter is this:
The recent 3D Pokémon games that Nintendo has released, which all in some way or another include the exact mechanic described in the patent, were absolute trash. I think that even Nintendo is aware of this fact.
Consequently, very many competitors have sprung up, and among them, Palworld, which completely eclipsed the popularity of Pokémon for a while.
Keep in mind that Pokémon is still the highest-grossing media franchise in the world and in history. It's Nintendo's golden goose.
In other words, they will do anything to ensure that no competitors can arise, including filing broad, unenforcible patents, because they know that the mere threat of developers getting sued by them, might just be enough to deter them.
They will do anything, other than releasing an actually good Pokémon game for once.
I wonder how this patent even got approved. I hate to speculate, but maybe they just paid some people who understand nothing about video games or the industry to be the ones to give it the stamp.