>>58235296The existence of affection boosts and human nature to find ANY kind of personal advantage (there's actual full-grown adult human men who hack things to enter PvP comps) points to the competitive scene being full of people having intimate relationships with their pokémon, to bring out their fullest potential. Logical progression from "not affectionate at all" equalling no bonus or boost rising in stages where it culminates in landing crit hits more regularly at max affection.
We're also almost 1 year removed from the release of Teraleak and confirmation Game Freak have had no compunction or issue with inferring human/pokémon relations, that the mentality of the universe is accepting o people hooking up with pokéon, if it happens. And yet there's still feebles trying to deny reality, then sperg out Game Freak makes pokémon with sexy design choices as if they're somehow unrelated.
