is this good gift to give to someone else? Reviews says the catching system is horrible.. but waiting for Sword & Shield version is going to be too late for a birthday gift

As someone who didn't care for Pokemon Go (which the game inherited its catching system from), I got past my distaste for the catching mechanics. If your friend really enjoys Go, it's probably a great gift as the game is a good between for typical Pokemon games and Go - they'll even get to transfer their Pokemon to the game.

Ultimately, like pretty much every gift purchase I can think of - it'll depend heavily on the person.