>>51254676It reflects how they want the series to be portrayed, it's not just a marketing thing, and it has to be marketing is extremely important anyways the wealth Pokemon makes relies on merchandise.
In fact it answer the OP's question in a meta way as to why things don't happen. Mr. Shudo said the reason Meowth talks is to act as an interpreter between people and Pokemon, and he's one of the reasons Team Rocket frequently appears in the anime, Mr. Shudo goes as far to refer to them as main characters. So really, Meowth exist because they wanted a way for Pokemon to be able to talk to the viewer and to express themselves meaning Pokmeon were never meant to talk.
If we take the guide and things said into consideration there's a good reason it's written that way. It's written that way because Pokemon are meant to be natural creatures, the critters of the Pokemon universe. That's why they don't want Pokemon to act like people. Sure they do people things sometimes but they don't act like people, or presented as people. They don't wear clothes, or file taxes, or act independently in human society, they're subordinates to their owners. They live in the wild and are presented as the natural life. Mr. Shudo in his writings constantly refers to Pokemon as animals, and he describes the relationship between humanity and Pokemon as that of "humans and animals living in the natural world". And there's firm ground to believe this isn't just his own beliefs. Not only because of the guide page specifically saying that Pokemon *replace* real animals, but also Shudo's telling us that the appearance of them in the anime were errors from the art team. But most telling is here
>>51251697Where he says that he can't add flies and mosquitos as part of a gag because they don't have a Pokemon equal. Mr. Shudo was also told that Ghost Pokemon have nothing to do with real ghost, we're talking about the early life of the franchise in the late 90s.
