>>38617433Well in the anime poke balls are useless for forcefully catching pokemon. They're high tech dog houses in that world.
Otherwise, poke balls may complicate the trafficking business by registering the pokemon to poachers. This might be detected by the PC network, and picky purchasers might reeee over the pokemon they're buying technically being traded to them. New items are more valuable than used ones, you know?
As for the maniacs, they either consider themselves too great to be a "mere trainer" and use balls, or they know the balls restrict the true power of a pokemon. Or the balls don't fully control the pokemon, so the maniac knows he needs other methods to enslave them for real.
