>>57019388That was always gameplay specifics being prioritized over narrative, especially because they still wanted you to have those Ex-Champions to rematch so you could grind your Pokemon. The early games especially weren't concerned with this because their postgames weren't fleshed out or had hardware limitations, so figuring out a series of flags to replace the champ with various challengers looking to take the title from YOU wasn't in their interests.
Alola and Galar both got it right, the former because (You) were the first ever champion of that region and the latter because they started caring about the narrative much more by that point, and it straight up doesn't make sense for Leon to still be in the position when he actively WANTED to be defeated so he could stop suffering from success.
The Paldea approach will probably be the one they stick to henceforth so they don't have to think about it too much on a narrative level, especially if the main champion is an important official figure like Pajeeta who runs the whole league operation to begin with, thus it's necessary for them to remain in power while it's just a simple title for everyone else, and a literal 11-14 year old sure as fuck wouldn't be fit for running an entire branch of government.
