Agree, I played for hours and found it too grindy. When the stamina is over progress it makes playing useless.
Also the map feels very empty, the sprites looks amazing but the mapping is quite shallow so you feel like youre walking on empty spaces for hours killing caterpies, it makes exploring a tedious chore. The ot has great potential, it just requires more work.
Also at low levels getting money is a pain, so don't expect to get enough for pokeballs.