I had already played through the likes of Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger when it came out. And by 1997, my eyes were on these things:
The people who were playing Pokeman at that time were "little kids" in my experience.
And then there was never any reason to go back to it. Gold comes out and I'm playing Baldur's Gate II. The GBA ones come, and my eyes are on Shin Megami Tensei III. The DS comes out and I'm buying Strange Journey. The 3DS comes out and I'm looking at all of the Atlus titles.
The better question is, why play a Pokemon when so many better alternatives exist?
To be clear, I have played Blue, but not for very long. So I don't count it. But I will get to it in the backlog challenge so I can finally check it off the list and get rid of it.