>>58780164I don’t think it was just that. There were a couple of things linking them thematically.
She’s near royalty tier rich due to being a dotted on mega hotel heiress while Guzma is a runaway living in the dregs.
She’s portrayed as being the successful one in game. She cleared the island challenge and became an internationally recognized trainer. It’s to the point where she left the region and only came back as a favor when Kukui begged. This also puts her on par in local respect to Island Kahunas, as the Alola elite four was all Kahuna/ captains outside of her. This is the opposite of Guzma who seems stuck in Alola despite being utterly cast aside by the system. Being seen as a frustrated failure and not even being able to become a trial captain.
They’re both linked to golf in someway. Kahili being Kahili and Guzma having the bent golf clubs at home.
Moreover, there’s the type advantage.
Guzma also had his backstory of constantly being second place. Kahili being so successful at life combined with the type advantage was kinda used to fill in one of the people who’d constantly upstage him.