(redditfag spacing for clarity)
Some of the "old writers" (read: filler writers from the galar series) come back during the second arc/season when the pace slows down, writing fillerish episodes in the vein of the ashnime; basically your classic tropey episodes that you always got in the previous series. So yeah, there are definitely episodes specifically focused on the Pokemon.
The situation surrounding Horizons is pretty unique. The studio subcontracted the writing to a screenplay company that works on seasonal anime and has never worked on Pokemon before. As such, they wrote what they knew how to for the first arc/season, which, while interesting, definitely didn't feel like the classic Pokemon show. Serialized pacing and a focus on the human characters and their relationships. Personally, I preferred this, but it seems like that situation was a bit untenable for the studio.
After the first season, the pacing swapped to something similar to the Ashnime, that being episodic: one small bit of rushed plot every two months. Right now, the old writers are writing the filler, while the seasonal writers are doing the "plot" episodes when they occur. Right now the pacing is about the last couple of episodes of each cour are done by them.
