Those are sound points.

Pokémon really is a huge brand name, some people that never collected Pokémon cards or even watched the show, sometimes know who Pikachu is!

I think it also taps into our human nature to 'collect' things and explore the world. In this day and age, people tend to be stuck in more, infront of screens a lot of the time, so I think this is a more innovative and healthy way to play a game, even though, ironically, they will still have a screen shoved in their face, but who cares :)

I have yet to play the game (I have a Windows phone) but I have found it interesting how much this app is exploding! In the space of just 1 week (ish,) Pokémon GO if about to overtake twitter in daily active users on Android, that is crazy.