As far as my own opinions on this goes I'm all for it conceptually, but so out of the loop that any input or advice from my end could be a little sketchy to say the least. That said, a few thoughts:

I am with what appears to be a growing concensus supporting a minimum of 2 teams of 4. I wouldn't be against a draft system as has been implemented for PE2K war teams either, to hopefully allow for a degree of team balancing.

Setting, including technological advancement, would be of very little importance to my own interest in the RP. I'd be on board with whatever. While ideas are being tossed around though, I did come up with something a while back that some vets might remember involving a Maridia vs Earth scenario. Some technological breakthrough could lead to one civilisation discovering the other and a conflict arising... you get the picture. Fairly sure it died from inactivity but the concept was solid, could dig it up.

Why should project lists ever be re-introduced?

Do we need to have Pokemon in the RP? Again, not of massive importance personally. Would consider any scenario.