Badge collectors not winning Don Battle Tournaments.

[Masurao]

In both of the Don Battle tournaments that have occurred/occuring so far a non-gym badge collector has(will) win. The badge collectors that have entered the tournament (as far as we know) are Ash, Trip, and Bianca. In the first Don Battle both Trip and Bianca lost in the first round, while Ash lost in the finals. In ongoing tournament Trip loses in the first round yet again, while both Ash and Bianca lose in the semi's.

Does it feel to you that the Don Battle tournaments are downplaying badge collectors somewhat, in favor of the trainers that don't collect badges?

Looking at Ash, he won the Twinleaf Festival, Pokeringer, and Hearthome Tag Tournament (with Paul) in DP. However, he has yet to win a tournament this saga. Does it hurt his credibilty as a trainer if he has 6, or so badges and get's out-prefomred by people who don't?

 

[Araragi-hakase]

If Satoshi won every tournament he entered, it'd get really old really fast as well as predictable. I wouldn't say that they're downplaying the badge collectors, they're just giving the other characters we don't get to see as often more screen time. I don't particularly enjoy the Don Battles, but I do enjoy getting to see the rivals interacting with one another. Just because their goal is different from badge collecting doesn't make them any less of a formidable opponent; it gives the audience a chance to see that there are different ways to train besides doing the badge circuit.

 

[Piplup]

Isn't Burgundy supposed to be collecting badges too? She did challenge the Striaton Gym and eventually got its badge...
I won't be surprised at all if she'll end up as a league rival for Ash, and maybe Georgia too... I could also see that Masaomi (or whatever his name was) being a potential league rival eventually... so I wouldn't be so quick to say these characters aren't "badge collectors"
EDIT: and of course, Stephan is collecting badges too...

 

[Jaye]

However, he has yet to win a tournament this saga. Does it hurt his credibilty as a trainer if he has 6, or so badges and get's out-prefomred by people who don't?

I don't think Ash losing due to a horrible type match-up in the first tournament and bowing out to a Pokemon much stronger than his in this tournament hurts his credibility at all. Likewise, Bianca reaching the semi's is actually a mark of significant progression for her, considering she had lost every battle she had been in on screen.

These Don George tournamets are designed with the purpose to give screentime to the plethora of rival characters introduced this saga: Trip, Bianca, Stephen, Burgundy and Georgia, all characters who otherwise won't appear often in the show (with Bianca the one exception). In Diamond and Pearl, though, Paul and Barry all go appearances outside of battles and tournaments as did Zoey and Kenny. So things like the Hearthome Tournament and Twinleaf Festival were done with different purposes in mind and not to give characters screentime.

Ultimately, whether a non-badge collector ends up looking better than a badge collecter for a couple of episodes doesn't matter