Buddy
Answers
I can't be more agree with you, some people believe they are "better" than others playing this game, I don't believe in that, just because you have a lot of rare spawns near you it does not make you "superior" to others, and the comment about "I don't bother walking a buddy" feels like getting candy is too easy, why do you walk a buddy? Without buddy system a lot of players would not have completed their 1st gen pokédex and I am sure the same will happen with gen2. A lot of people has seen/catch/hatch 1 Dratini in 7 months, for me this is a big fail of this game, the distribution of spawns and rare spawns, I agree that a city has to have more spawns than rural areas, but then they should make spawns on rural areas a LOT more rarer, like 5/10 times the ones in a city or so.
And no, I don't live in a rural area, but I really admire those who are and keep playing every day even seeing that the game has turned their backs on them.
Yeah without this buddy system i couldn't have finish first gen pokedex (particulary thanks to halloween X4 candy event). It helped rural players (at least me ^^). Gen 2 IMO will have some difficulties for me : no Sunkern, Houndour and Unown in eggs, and two 5k buddy needing 125 candies (Larvitar and Mareep)...