Nurse Joy being there isn't evidence that the old Stoutland will be ok. She isn't a miracle worker. I predict that she'll break the news on the old Stoutland's condition.
I don't know. Nurse Joy hasn't done anything in SM so far. How would it look if the only role she's had so far was failing to save Stoutland?
Besides, let's look at what we know about this episode. We know Ash will follow Litten and discover its new home. We know Litten will eventually come to Ash about Stoutland. We know TR is in this episode, and because Bewear is as well, I think it's a safe assumption that they're going to interfere and will wind up being carried off by the big teddy bear. We know Nurse Joy is in this episode, so there will be some time spent in the Pokemon Center. And we know Pikachu and Litten battle for some reason. Assuming Stoutland survives, that sounds like enough material for this episode. If Stoutland were to die, there would have to be some extra scenes involving Litten and Ash mourning its death. Plus, assuming that battle between Pikachu and Litten happens toward the end of the episode, would Litten really be up for a battle if its mentor just passed away? If it is, there would have to be even
more time devoted to Ash comforting and encouraging Litten. And I just don't know if there's enough time for that without really rushing things.
But what do I know?
On another note, I just noticed in the summary for SM21, it says "Nyabby appears before Ash
and the others..." So his classmates are going to help with Stoutland, too?