Forum Thread
Meltan/Melmetal
Forum-Index → Bug Reports → Resolved → Meltan/MelmetalBecause judging by the official Pokémon of the Year categorization you're referring to here ...
... even they don't place it in Galar specifically, or why else does it say 'etc.' when all the other dexes/regions don't have that add-on? And, besides Meltan and Melmetal, all Pokémon in the "Galar, etc." category are, in fact, Pokémon from Galar (Grookey -> Eternatus). Thus, I'd assume the 'etc.' part refers to Meltan and Melmetal here.
So, why move the two of them from Alola to Galar when they aren't even officially confirmed to be/classified as Galar Pokémon? Meltan and Melmetal are gen 7 Pokémon - I think we all can agree to that - but, as far as I know, they never have been officially assigned a specific region they originate from.
.gif above ©Haikyuu!! official anime
My main point is that they were sorted with Galar Pokémon, which I feel is good enough reasoning to make the change. Obviously, I am just one person, this is just my thought over the matter. I’ve heard that the regional ‘dexes are just easier ways of labeling Gen 1-8/Site only/Mega(-ish) forms/Retro, which I think would’ve never been a problem until this. Yes, Meltan and Melmetal are Gen 7 (unless Gamefreak comes out and says they aren’t, but I don’t recall if they’ve ever acknowledge generations?), but they’re being sorted with Galar. Now, in the future when Galar isn’t the newest region, they could sort them into Alola or whatever the newest region is, maybe. But officially, they’ve been labeled “Unknown” and sorted with Galar Pokémon.
Another note that’s pretty unrelated, Melmetal does have a Gigantimax form, which I have no idea if that’d add anything to this, as I think G-Max’s would be sorted like Megas are, but- ¯\_(ツ)_/¯