I thought you were talking about the games. Since you meant the Anime, I agree even more, Kanto and Orange Islands were the only good series, but Johto was the last season that was actually tolerable.
Shigeru Miyamoto > Akira Toriyama > Satoshi Tajiri
Dragon Ball is on the same level of quality as Mario and Pokemon, but Zelda is to Mario and Pokemon what One Piece is to Dragon Ball.
The English Dub improved in the Boo Saga too. The only thing that didn't improve was Faulconer's music, which actually got worse during that time period.
I miss when they made filler arcs and filler sagas in general instead of just filler to stretch out the anime. This is one of the reasons, anime wise, why I look back fondly on the East Blue Saga, the Baroque Works Saga, and the Skypiea Saga.