>>36573238It can mostly be summed up to bad writing.
For whatever reason with Johto they did a complete 180 with Ash and Misty's interactions. That's not a bad thing necessarily, but they didn't have anything more to develop her with. Aside from the occasional Misty-centric episode she's reduced to being a cockblock for whenever Brock swoons over the girl of the day for the vast majority of Johto.
They meandered on it until the inevitable introduction of the new games and consequently May, and that was that. To be honest I think the same can also be said for Brock but he's at least the knowledgeable stand-in.
