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If we accept The Fleeting Tower as Ash's first battle against Volkner it is still the longest gap between Ash challenging Gyms in the entire anime. The closest in DP to reach that mark is the gap between Gardenia and Maylene at 30 episodes. Just for comparison to other long gaps (counting from the final battle of one to the first battle of another): Koga and Blaine were 27 episodes apart, Morty and Chuck were also 27 episodes apart, Wattson and Flannery were 16 episodes apart, Burgh and Elesa were 27 episodes apart, and Olympia and Wulfric were 28 episodes apart.
In between Candice and Volkner, Dawn competed in two Contests, Ash battled Paul and Flint, Looker was introduced and Team Galactic was defeated, the Twinleaf Festival happened, the Johto arc happened, Ash released Gliscor, caught a Gible, and evolved his Monferno, while Dawn hatched a Quilava from an egg. Even with a healthy bit of filler, the writers did a lot to make sure that something interesting happened every few episodes. In between Wattson and Flannery, for comparison, Misty returned, May caught a Skitty and won the Fallarbor Contest, and Team Aqua and Magma had a fight over the meteorite. The rest was filler, and it was about 50-50 on whether it was enjoyable or not.
This is not to knock AG in particular, but it shows how the different series emphasized different things. In AG, Gym battles and Contests were the main attraction, so they kept them close together and I think the pacing for ADV at least worked out really well for the most part; BF was perhaps too quick. In DP, the writers felt they could fall back on other things (Team Galactic, Paul, random arcs of just...interesting things happening) to space out the Gyms, and Dawn could stand to lose more Contests than May did. I think if you're a viewer who enjoys the games' pacing and plotlines a lot, AG is going to appeal to you more. If you're into letting the anime breath and do its own thing, DP is the better of the two.
