>>44269122I agree with most of this, but nix that champion idea, one of the best parts of Pokemon is developing your own team over time, as a champion you'd get your team from the start.
I think genuinely the best course of action though is to just abandon gyms, it's just a really restrictive and really stale way of writing while also trying to cram in a villainous plot on the side. A Golden Sun/Breath of Fire/etc RPG that has a heavy emphasis on exploring a large world (or in this case, region, I guess) while helping towns/stopping bad guys and saving the world while not shying away from some darker aspects would be a perfect format for this franchise. Or flesh out the gym experience and explore its different angles, SwSh could have done that but it didn't even want to try.
