Apologies but from what I'm getting is, you don't seem to understand why people care so much about battles in the first place. See people who do care about battles will understand to an extant why I consider the Unova 1v1 arc better than past tournaments. From this, you don't seem to truly understand how tournament story-lines commonly work or why many people choose which Pokemon Leagues are the best and are the worst or the reason why people care about battles. To disregard character development of tournament story-lines as the main factor is also to disregard battles of the Pokemon anime.
You say that people don't care about this stuff but from what I've seen of what people think of Pokemon battles in Serebii.net at least, that seems to be the exact opposite. According to a lot of people's opinions I've seen around Serebii.net, there is such thing as too much battles to the point it comes across as boring. Some people have mentioned that they get battle-fatigue to the point that they skim through some of the Gym Leader battles or through some of the Pokemon League battles. Why is this boring? For many it's boring character development. Battles are another way of character interactions in the anime. Some people forget that this isn't the games where you grind your Pokemon's level but this is an anime in the end where character development is also built on Pokemon battles. In fact one of the reasons why the Sinnoh and Kalos league are consider to be the greatest of the Pokemon Leagues commonly by the majority of fans is how it skims the Pokemon Leagues to just the battles that fans want to see, battles between established characters. As you said, people want to just see the battles but why are certain battles consider better or boring than others? Is it the tactics and action involved? Of course but you have to understand that every blow, every tactic, every dodge is a factor to consider in character development. These battles showcase character development and the popular ones are often between two already established characters with good reason. In fact that's the main reason why the Kalos League was so short was that it was only focusing on Ash's major rivals already established throughout the story. It's why Ash vs. Alain was so exciting, it was by some fans as not only the pinnacle of Ash's strength as a character, a display of how far he's come across as a character including his Pokemon but also his rival Alain who showed just how far his own training has got him. Whereas someone like Tobias just showed up and left in a few episodes. If you just want to see battles for the sake of battles and don't care how far Ash has come as a trainer, then you'll probably enjoy Tobias's battle for the most part but most people have a polarize view of Tobias. On one hand we get to see Ash's Sceptile get some character development through how he finished off Darkrai. On one other hand this battle is straight-up boring for some people as it's just a stupid plot-device that shows how much of a boring character Tobias is. Actually the thing is. This battle could've been really good character development for Tobias if this battle took place earlier in the series, establishing Tobias as a rival throughout the story but instead he was just a last-minute rival to give Ash an excuse to lose again. In fact it's through battling that we see Ash's own character come through. If you didn't notice, Ash's battle style is a mixture of offense, speed and playing to his Pokemon's strengths in other areas outside of typing. He always surprises characters around him for using a typing that isn't really supereffective against the opponent's typing, using unorthodox tactics. These battles are a display of Ash's character.
These are the reasons why people grow excited or bored of battles is because EVERY SINGLE BATTLE is character development at it's most exciting or at it's worst and most boring to the point that some people have battle fatigue. To ignore the character development that each battle carries is to ignore why people love, hate or grow bored of battles so much. It's why people often criticize these last-minute rivals and Ash losing at the last-minute as it's a roadblock to Ash's character but also at the same time highlight some of the greatest moments of these Pokemon Leagues like Ash vs. Gary, Paul or Alain which is a progression of his character. The reason why battles are second to character development is not necessarily because battles are weaker than the character development, it's because battling is a part of character development. That's why tournament story-lines seen in stuff like Dragon Ball Z or Naruto are so exciting because we get to see just how far their characters have come afar through battles and people who fail to understand this will fail to understand why people want to see or care about these battles in the first place.
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As for the second question, I have never seen the Best Wishes series when I started watching the XY series. I don't know if you know this but it was at the XY series point of time that Pokemon fans were yelling out, "POKEMON IS FINALLY GOOD!" to everyone, recommending that anyone who call themselves a Pokemon fan to watch the XY series. The XY series was a vast improvement over past anime series according to many fans however it was also a good refreshing start severing it's ties from past series almost completely to the point it felt like a refreshing reboot. To you it may seems like it can't be without the Best Wishes series but to someone like me and all the others who haven't watched Pokemon in a long time, all I saw was Ash stepping out of the plane with Alexia prepared for another new region to explore like any other series before it only this time it practically severed it's relationship with past regions with the exception of Prof. Oak and Hoenn I believe. I didn't need to know the backstory behind this trip. Alexia already explained it in a few quick words and that's it. When the series ended, it ended on a note that was loved by all fans. For new fans, we get to see Ash go back home and relax. It was a satisfying ending. For older fans, we see Ash going back home to meet with Delilah Ketchum, his mother, who was never mentioned at all in the XYZ series except as simply Ash's mother. It was because of this "isolation" I suppose that the XYZ series, the entire 6th gen of animation, felt like a refreshing reboot of Pokemon.
