Long-time casual player of the 8 and 16-bit Compile games (mostly through emulation), I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen a SEGA-developped Puyo for any platform in retail before Puyo Puyo Tetris. Seems like they barely existed at all where I live.
So I’m not sure Puyo Puyo Tetris is to blame for the state of the game, at least it made a lot of people aware that the game exists. Though I can’t say I’m a big fan of its aesthetics or writing…
Nowadays whenever I want to play some quick Puyo I just play Tsu on switch online SNES.