I am also excited to explore a region like Alola! Things like the Alolan Forms should definitely help to give the region its own strong flavor, and I like the idea of other people doing things like using PokeRide to help flesh things out. Plus, having Pokemon more integrated into the world at large and actually doing the things they're said to do will be really neat and I hope you're right when you hypothesize it being widespread.

My one concern with Alola is that with so much of it being ocean, constantly boarding/leaving your sea transport could be a pain, but honestly that's a concern that doesn't carry much weight given Game Freak's increasing willingness to innovate and experiment.