I'd argue less for the filler in earlier series, but SM, I do indeed enjoy them for their diversity and having way more character driven stories instead of generic formula. Ash's fillers actually tend to be really good this series, and while Sophocles is lacking much progression at all, his episodes actually tend to be really fun and I like him and his team's characterisations.
Mallow less so, but that's more because she can't hold an episode on her own so they try to hide it with formula or superficial development like evolving her Pokemon prematurely and having her job TR in a rather predictable way. This is where trying to push 'development' just doesn't work out, you have to make the audience be invested in the character first, and that's where well made fillers are helpful.
There really should be the odd plot where the character is kept still and you are made to appreciate them just for what they have so far. Pokemon evolving or learning new moves constantly for example robs them of a chance to properly display their abilities and skill over plot armour giving them more upper hands.
Pikachu for example is already pretty experienced and his characterisation has been pretty much set since late OS, so for the large part he's only had a couple skill boosts this series (mostly Z Moves) otherwise most episodes focusing on his character in new scenarios or him using his trademark skillset in different clever ways. In other words he's mostly stagnant, but that means there's time to appreciate the actual character and not just the new development and stuff he keeps getting.
I think they have come to this conclusion with Ash as well, they can only have him climb up so far now in terms of goals and progression, so they may as well make him enjoyable for his standalone character.
I think this was the error for some arc characters like May or Serena, they often tried to hard to push their development 'look how they've grown, look how much better they've become'. When it came to just having episodes based on their personality, they had to keep resorting to cheap short cuts like TR interruptions or things HAPPENING TO them, simply because, in spite of all that development, their base character still wasn't versatile enough to hold a story. The crossdressing episode looked like a case of them trying to make a story just about Serena's quirks and goofing off, but eventually it just cut off with Ash and TR taking over, they couldn't think of a way for her character to properly close up the plot.
This ended up a HUGE point of contention with XY Ash, since so much of his appeal came in him being competent and actually standing a chance of winning the league, when he didn't, he suddenly came off as a far blander less gratifying to watch character.
Mallow less so, but that's more because she can't hold an episode on her own so they try to hide it with formula or superficial development like evolving her Pokemon prematurely and having her job TR in a rather predictable way. This is where trying to push 'development' just doesn't work out, you have to make the audience be invested in the character first, and that's where well made fillers are helpful.
There really should be the odd plot where the character is kept still and you are made to appreciate them just for what they have so far. Pokemon evolving or learning new moves constantly for example robs them of a chance to properly display their abilities and skill over plot armour giving them more upper hands.
Pikachu for example is already pretty experienced and his characterisation has been pretty much set since late OS, so for the large part he's only had a couple skill boosts this series (mostly Z Moves) otherwise most episodes focusing on his character in new scenarios or him using his trademark skillset in different clever ways. In other words he's mostly stagnant, but that means there's time to appreciate the actual character and not just the new development and stuff he keeps getting.
I think they have come to this conclusion with Ash as well, they can only have him climb up so far now in terms of goals and progression, so they may as well make him enjoyable for his standalone character.
I think this was the error for some arc characters like May or Serena, they often tried to hard to push their development 'look how they've grown, look how much better they've become'. When it came to just having episodes based on their personality, they had to keep resorting to cheap short cuts like TR interruptions or things HAPPENING TO them, simply because, in spite of all that development, their base character still wasn't versatile enough to hold a story. The crossdressing episode looked like a case of them trying to make a story just about Serena's quirks and goofing off, but eventually it just cut off with Ash and TR taking over, they couldn't think of a way for her character to properly close up the plot.
This ended up a HUGE point of contention with XY Ash, since so much of his appeal came in him being competent and actually standing a chance of winning the league, when he didn't, he suddenly came off as a far blander less gratifying to watch character.
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