I was in the same boat. I heard Arceus doesn’t have gym battles so I copped Sword and Shield and my entire family has been having a blast with it.
This is late but… despite not having gym battles (and a revamp of previous battle mechanics) I enjoyed Arceus, in short, for its refreshing gameplay.
However, I’d like to see New Pokémon games combine Arceus’ gameplay with previous features/mechanics from previous games such as:
trainer battles (there’s a very small amount)
Multiplayer (you can only trade)
Breeding
Battle mechanics
the only things I didn’t like from Arceus were Strong/Agile style moves and Pokémon speed sometimes allowing them to move twice in a row (sometimes even three, if combined with agile style and a wide enough speed gap)