I'd suggest watching the developer of Braid talk about free-to-play games. He compares them to 90's syndicated TV shows, each one being independent and leaving you with a cliffhanger prior to each commercial break. When HBO started producing long running series that would eventually be released on VHS and DVD, you saw much more long arching story.
Even though Pokemon Go has a lot more going for it than many other free-to-play games, it still works on a model that limits how far you can go without buying stuff. That's how those game companies make money.
I met a Pikpok dev once who said 80% of people delete their games once you can't really advance without buying stuff. A couple spend $80 ~ $200 (more than they would on a traditional title) and a few, the "Whales," would dump $2k upwards into these games. They depended on those players to make the games profitable.
Free-to-play are like quarter-based arcade games .. on your phone. They're a pretty big step backwards in gaming.