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That's a big reason why the lack of reserves doesn't bother me. Since he's only battling three opponents and his Journeys team has still gotten minimal screentime compared to most of Ash's other teams, I think throwing in reserves would just make it more of a mess. Granted, the fact that I didn't think that they'd bring in Ash's reserves well before it was confirmed probably helps, but with this setup, I think throwing in more Pokemon would cause more problems.I'd be fine with Ash using reserves if this was a Round Robin competition and he'd battle all seven. But he's only facing three and the Journeys team still needs to make up for the lackluster treatment they received during most of the show's run.
I don't think most of those comparisons really work. Sure, Torracat didn' get a Kahuna battle, but it still got a good amount of focus througout SM. Same with Goodra, arguably Gible, at least as far as late captures go, and Taillow since it did become one of Ash's main Pokemon of his AG team. Even Torkoal had more presence than Dracovish and Sirfetch'd. I can't really say the same thing for most of Ash's Pokemon in Journeys. The only comparisons that really work are with Ash's Johto Pokemon like Totodile and Noctowl, as well as Noivern, which were pretty underused in general.It would have been the best of both worlds if he mixed and matched. His Journey's team already has had nearly the same amount of battles as Gyms as most previous pokemon have besides Ash's starter. When you remember stuff like Noviern never getting a Gym battle, Goodra only being in 1, Torracat never getting a Kahuna battle, Torkoal only getting 1 Gym, Snorunt only getting 1 Gym where it lost, Totodile only getting 1 Gym where it lost, Noctowl only getting 1 Gym, Gible never getting a Gym, Taillow being treated poorly until it evolved, etc....the way Dracovish/Sirfetch'd are treated is not much different.
If you view Lucario as the way Ash's starters are treated, it basically has a little less focus than a usual starter each series but the same amount of "big" battles.
That's kind of the big problem with Ash's Journeys team. His Pokemon only get screentime when they battle. We don't see much on-screen training or interactions, which has been a huge issue for most of Journeys' run. They only get screentime if they're being captured, evolving, getting a power up or in a battle. Other Pokemon in other series not getting much battles isn't really the same thing as how Ash's Journeys team has been handled. Like I've said before, this is an issue with how Pokemon in general have been handled in this series, so it isn't exclusive to Ash's team. It might feel more apparent with his team given how people would be cheering if Gengar even had five seconds worth of screentime, but the same applies to pretty much every Pokemon in this series.
I can understand that since getting to see Ash use his older Pokemon against Champions certainly sounds cool and it would potentially make his victories more believable. Although, given how many Pokemon Ash has at this point, it would be kind of difficult to give a lot of them any noteworthy spotlight, especially when they would rather focus more on Ash's cool and marketable Pokemon like Charizard and Greninja before doing anything with his Quilava or Torkoal.It's just sad, to me, that this series with its premise presented a seemingly great opportunity for the reserves to get "one last hurrah," but instead it's been made clear they will never be used in battle again.