Some chucklefuck on reddit claims to have an interview with a dad who works at Nintendo, was discussed in this original thread >>41594039 While the original post has been deleted, going to the removeddit archive reveals no link to any interview. However, this link dropped in the previous thread >>41597360 and I've wasted my time going through it. It appears to be an interview with a playtester through discord.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1etUg6qm3UrKseNDTuuvxIpgHgKk88ieZ/view

I'm going to summarise it to see if anyone can point out if it's bullshit.

>Game Freak is at the mercy of Nintendo and TPCi, who are at the mercy of Japanese businessmen
>Nintendo and TPCi are co-publishers
>TPCi were the ones who decided to cut the dex, not clear if it means they made the decision to cut or chose what to cut
>Pokemon that survived where chosen for marketability, or 'underratedness'
>GF has input from different parts of the franchise and supposedly Sugimori was specifically requested by the anime people to design Audino to replace Chansey
>Pokemon often chosen for things before they are even named, like choosing Incineroar for Smash while it was still named 'Tiger 3'

The leaked gen 7 starter sheets does show Incineroar being named as 'トラ' 3 (Tiger), so that's one thing consistent