That's not unfair, you don't even need to understand English if you play with notes lmao
Instead, that IS fair, because it makes it so that no runner loses or saves time compared to others based on which language they choose. And it also makes notes usable by everyone without having to change the name of the Pokémon/moves/items/whatever, so I really don't get why you're complaining here.
Plus it's not like the cartridges still come in only one language, every single cartridge has all available languages now (it's like that since XY came out back in 2013).
And if the issue is that you want to be able to understand the dialogues and the story, then I'm afraid you don't really understand what speedrunning means...
not to be mentioned yet but the switch is non region locked console so even if someone is in a different county where the English version isn't available, they can easily obtain the English version
Hello everyone! With the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 imminent, we have added a new annotated variable to all of the Sword/Shield categories: the Console variable. This variable is used to denote whether your run was performed on the Switch 1 or on the Switch 2.
This new Console variable al
