Crap, I got ninja'd in the thread creation. I was just writing the thread post. But anyway, here are my thoughts. (And yet, I took one hour writing this post after I realized I was no longer first. Oh well)
The update is just those eight pages.
As I expected, we don't see the fire being put out. It just skips to after the fact. G-Cis is arrested, and Whi-Two says the Pokémon he stole will never forgive or forget him, even if humans eventually do.
N seems to accept Zorua back, and I get the impression Hue's sister's Purrloin is the same one he used to fight Black. I also get the impression that some of those Pokémon that show up at the end were N's. I mean, Gurdurr, Tranquill, Palpitoad, Swoobat. All of those are either Pokémon he had, or Evolutions of them. But there's also so many unrelated Pokémon, like Golurk and... A Servine? Cheren's Servine? Hue's Snivy after evolving?
I'm also surprised Reshiram and Zekrom flew off. Many other characters have already owned Legandaries in PokéSpe, so why not let Black and N keep the first Legendaries that you
need to catch in the games? Is Kusaka just against
cover Legendaries being permanent members of character teams?
We also have G-Cis referring to Black as "Dreamer", which is, like, the first time since FRLG that a Dex Holder title is said on page, and the first time that a post-GSC title is mentioned outside supplementary materials. Is this going to be a regular thing from now on? Are the titles going to appear in the story moving forward, instead of just being mentioned in guide books?
But this update, it feels a bit rushed. It lacks a transition scene for XY referencing Kalos or anything. We also have Lack-Two just... Just being
there in the final panel. We have no idea if Lack-Two and Whi-Two return to have classes on the Trainers' School. And also, we still need Cheren and Homika to become Gym Leaders.
I have to say, I smell a volume expansion. When was the last time we actually got the complete ending in the serialization? Really. At least since
Platinum every non-volume ending is incomplete.
There are probably a few volume-only pages in this chapter. Probably not a ton, but at least one scene after Lack-Two walks with his Pokémon.
If my theory about Cheren, Bel, and Hue getting Pokédexes is correct, I feel like Kusaka wants non-game name Dex Holders to be a volume-only surprise.
This should've been a PWT arc, akin to Emerald Arc, instead of that random detective story they actually went for (Kusaka was never good at such things). It would still be screwed by all those hiati but at least it could be more tolerable and more up to our expectations (the artbook poster and the new Kanto Gym Leaders art promised us a PWT and we got nothing, just an aerial view of its unfinished building). But I guess it doesn't matter now.
I think Kusaka was initially confident he would be able to get another magazine to serialize B2W2 and XY at the same time. I'm pretty sure he didn't expect multiple Generations to pass before being able to finish it. The fact multiple early chapters were excursions makes me feel that was the "travel reason" for this arc, and that is what they would use to showcase all the new locations and features.
And honestly, due to the B2W2 games being a whole new story, instead of third game or remake, I feel like Kusaka originally wanted the B2W2 arc to have the same size as an usual "first game" arc, and the PWT was going to be sort of a midstory stuff. This probably explains why he didn't put much effort into showcasing unused moves and Pokémon, or giving a team to Whi-Two.
Only after ORAS, or maybe after learned SM was coming, he realized he would not be able to have a first game sized arc, and had to change pace
fast, but the damage was already done. That is probably why the PWT became just a cameo.
By contrast, B2W2's existence was probably why XY already hit the ground running: Kusaka was probably bracing for the possibility of X2Y2 instead of Z, and didn't want to take his sweet time with Legendaries like he did in BW and Sinnoh, even though Kalos only had three new non-Mythicals.
But relax, I'm sure we'll get the Pokémon World Tournament when we get BW remakes, or maybe B2W2 remakes. Unless SwSh does it first with DLC, in which case PokéSpe will do PWT in Galar instead and have a short reference to the Unova one that happened "a few years ago".