It does make sense, because Ho-oh is dawn, rebirth of the sun or w.e, and Lugia is the opposite, but it should be DawnGold and DuskSilver, but they don't sound as good.
I don't see how anyone can prefer the or original games, for starters, every game is exactly the same. The older games on Gameboy are just intolerable, I hate the game mechanics. In Red/Blue you can't even run, and it's ages until you get the bike.