>>53624140That's very noticeable especially with Pokeshippers on twitter and forums. They always make fanart of Misty doing things they wished happened in the show, or gave her story ideas she didn't get. As you said, outside of Misty's best eps in the anime, people like the idea of Misty more than how she is portrayed in the series.
Like people draw fanart of her with Suicune, having a good team like Vaporeon, Starmie, Dewgong, etc, show her battling major trainers, etc.
It's probably why there's so much fanfiction or fanart back in the day, fans were giving Misty the things she didn't get from the writers.