I mean i find it ironic that people are suddenly desperate for reserves to be used, when in the past they'd complain about it.
Kanto and jouto got passes, the former being the first big tournament, and jouto Ash's team definitely not being up to par forcing reserves there.
But in the battle frontier and sinnoh it was a different case with people.
in the battle frontier, I remember how angry people got when Charizard showed up for Ash's first battle facility, and even angrier when it revealed to have Overheat, so many people claiming how it "Stole" the move from Torkoal, but then were cheering the praises of May's combusken when it used the attack in the kanto GF.
And of course the fact that Snorlax solo'ed the battle dojo with it's "infinite" health which was met with complaints...then Heracross came back and lost to a Venusaur which made people angry, Tauros I don't think anyone cared.
then came Ash's final battle pyramid battle, so many excited to see the BF team take down all 3 regi's...until it was revealed the kanto starters were coming in, that was retracted and people wanted Ash to lose feeling the kanto pokemon were "Stealing" glory they didn't deserve.
Now I move on to the sinnoh league, despite using his reserves there, we only saw a handful of them actually fight, and actually win.
Cyndaquil comes back, evolves and learns Eruption...yet all it gets for this is a draw?
Snorlax, Noctowl, Heracross and Sceptile were the only ones to get wins, everyone else was either beaten or never seen fighting, maybe there wasn't as much complaining as the BF, but it still wasn't a good situation.
But that's the problem, people are bound to complain if who they like doesn't get used, and what if the writers don't employ them right either as past history has shown?
Because in the end you lose either way.