This Solgaleo and Eternatus thing kinda reminded me of "The Strongest Lizardon Battle! Dande vs. Alan!" moment... can't believe expectations have only lowered from that situation moving forward up until Ash vs. Cynthia, obviously best battle of the M8 and enjoyable enough. I don't think even that battle was worth the hype it got though. Remember people hoping that Ash will use reserves in the M8? Yeah it may create some problems with some reserves jobbing for others to look good, but it would have made the M8 a lot more interesting to see some of the mons Ash traveled with over the series. Lmao
It's hard to be positive about Ash vs. Leon for me given that Leon's battles in the M8 are very questionable at best. Something ridiculous and unexpected has to happen for me to stay interested in Ash vs. Leon like aforementioned reserves, Ash or Leon using X Legendary Pokemon, or something even dumber like Ash-Greninja, idk. Sadly, while technically possible, these are probably not going to happen. Ash vs. Kukui had such a twist with Tapu Koko, yeah the supposed ace Incineroar not fighting last and the 6th Pokemon being suspiciously hidden raised huge red flags but I honestly did not predict the amazing 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt vs. Guardian of Alola scene when the episode came out a couple years back. Totally forgot that Z-Move existed but it came into life in the anime in the best way possible and really the progress Ash made in Alola ever since Tapu Koko gave him the Z-Ring in the first episode. I doubt that Ash vs. Leon will be able to capture the same magic or even come anywhere close to this.
Anyways, gonna keep on being pessimistic and hope that Journeys surprises me with at least a solid battle with a better finale than Lucario vs. Garchomp. Ash vs. Leon will probably be very similar to Ash vs. Cynthia if I had to make a bet, just switch up who's winning and who's losing on Ash's team a little, though Ash has a wide range of gimmicks to choose from (my vote is for G-Max Pikachu). If it's merely a solid battle, hopefully this won't be Ash's last battle in the series if he's not coming back in SV. At least give him a Kukui/Paul/Alain/etc. tier battle or a good one against a Legendary like X Pokemon/Ho-oh to finish him. But imo he will likely stay given Ash's marketability and the vague nature of being a Pokemon Master still gives a lot of possibilities for what Ash will do in the future.