Bulbagarden

Well, I grew up with the original Digimon series, so I at least know how the Digimon franchise works. I mean, I can get the smart-phone thing, but the designs just seem very un-conventional for Digimon partners, at least in their Child-level forms. Yes there was Frontier, but I will consider Frontier more of a Digimon series than this so far.

Same as here. I watch every single series starting from the 1st Adventure, and played through almost all the Digimon games except the ones on PS Vita (bcos I don't have PS Vita). Although the Frontier protagonist digimon was unconventional back at that time, but aesthetically I still accept them as "Digimon".

For my personal opinion, although Digimon were known to be data, but their design were always somehow seems "organic" than being manmade objects, except a few robotic ones. Even the ones fully covered in armor, there still exist some organic feeling about them.

I like Digimon being labeled as being inorganic data, but their somehow organic physical appearance contradict that statement, hence making them feel "alive" despite technically speaking they are not living creatures.
That is my interpretation of the design concept of Digimon, where somehow I don't felt that from these Applimon.