I agree entirely with you about Steven. Steven is so much better than Lance and Lance already had his screentime, why did he have to steal other's for no real reason at all? And Wallace being ignored until DP saga was only slightly less frustrating, but at least he got a role.
Not to mention how utterly appaling it is that the vastly superior male game protagonists (Red, Ethan, Brendan, Touya and undoubteldy Kyouhei as well) get ignored so Ash gets all the attention, blah. Until they do the anime isn't worth watching again imo.