Tis the time to spam reoccurring questions that I keep forgetting to post falalalala lala la la
Okay but seriously, have they ever said anything on why they changed Leafeon and Glaceon to evolve with the Leaf Stone and Ice Stone? If no, any speculations?
Those with past Eevee experience wil recall that, in order to evolve them with with the Moss Rock or the Ice Rock respectively. Since these are items with little use, they're often really rare. So, in Pokémon Sword and Shield, they just removed them from the game.
So, since the mossy rock and icy rock have such little use besides this, they just removed it.
Source: https://gamerant.com/pokemon-sword-shield-leafeon-glaceon/
Games have increasingly been targeted towards younger players, and they want the games to be easier.
Therefore, They would probably want the players to get their full teams. I understand that glaceon is weird, but it is at a frozen route. The leaf stone is in turrfield (or near). The fire stone is near motostoke. It seems like they are trying to correlate them. The typings are very similar too. So that is my theory.