>>48734344It's also very likely because she was the first new female lead coming in and the writers weren't sure if replacing Misty would be successful at first, they upped May's sex appeal greatly so kids/teens at the time would forget about Misty and like May more.
As someone who was a teen when Hoenn started, I'd say that worked for me. As soon as I saw May's boobs in the first Hoenn episode I was like, "Misty who?" and didn't really care Misty left.
