>>40033326>>40033347Badges are, at least in the anime, more of a "Basic competency test" than anything else. We've seen from some like Giovanni that the leader absolutely doesn't need to fight at full strength, but rather enough that the trainer must demonstrate some basic competence as a trainer. The Orange Islands were similar, in that the trials had trainers display their basic competence with their Pokemon, just by using tests outside of battling.
In fact, the newer games allude to this, by having the Gym Leader's second round of Pokemon usually be significantly stronger - not to say they can't train their Pokemon, but it's much more likely that they've established and held onto their title as Gym leader via using a finely crafted and trained team of Pokemon from the beginning.
Alola though... Doesn't actually have any basic competency requirements for having entered the league.
