Well they've been working for a while on a "real life reference + affiliation" sort of thing that seemed to work, so of course people will be opposed to change. Also note that since names are subjective in how they sound, they can't win - and there's always going to be the blind "Japanese everything is better" group that's going to complain about how much better the Japanese names sound.
But yeah in essence language only has the meanings you associate, or are taught to associate, with the words, thus in the end names in general only make sense if you yourself make sense of them. But of course, there is normally an overall consensus (semi) on what in n general sounds weird/unnatural/silly in a given name.
Well with how HM's don't break, as long as they kept the TM break mechanic, certain key ones like Fly or Surf were pretty necessary to be kept for the sake of traversal and the development of the game, they're supposed to keep you where you can handle the wild/trainers - albeit I'm not sure why they wouldn't let you unlearn them (strategy I guess, it forces the player to make a decision on how to handle their party as they need certain hms - HM slaves also have their disadvantages too so sometimes it may be better to teach them to one of your normals if it matches in with their move scheme).
And hey, some HM's were pretty fun in my opinion (mainly dive, the other's are a bit meh other then Fly and Surf). I want dive back!
