I originally got into the Pokemon anime in the first season. I got attached to the characters and their chemistry. I think it was a mistake of the writer to replace Ash's friends every season. Yeah, growing apart from your friends as you each go on separate ways is an IRL thing. But in a cartoon that's meant to be comforting, it's rather sad. Plus, I miss the way the show used to be. Each consequent season got blander. If they wanted to keep adding new characters for each new region and Pokemon, maybe it would have been better to have a new main protagonist for each region like how every season of JoJo follows a new descendant.