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Dawn is them attempting to do a more focused May because they originally wanted May to be the protagonist of Hoenn, only to go crawling back to Ash because they didn't think boys would watch an anime focusing on a girl. They wouldn't have made her Norman's daughter if they weren't trying to commit to the games at first, but they decided to make her a crybaby bitch and give up on training because it was too hard and she's a girl. So later they incorporated the Pokemon Contest mechanic and thought "maybe we can dump her in this to give her shit to do?" which is a similar thing to happen to Serena and why the two met in the anime at all
Dawn from the start was always going to be the contest arc, she never was going to be pushed as the protagonist since it was obvious Ash was here to stay.
