Almighty Zard
He has returned.
I don’t know where this idea that if Squirtle were to evolve that it would have to be a forced evolution is coming from. Let’s get one thing straight here Ash’s Squirtle never express it’s opinion on whether it wants to evolve or not.
So no, it’s not a case where the only way for Squirtle to evolve would be through a force evolution. As for being part of the Squirtle Squad in all honesty I highly doubt it’s squad members would reject it just because it evolved.
It's the bond with it's squad that makes me feel that way with Squirtle, and it and Bulbasaur being seeing as good friends (plus the initial refusal) are why I feel like they would need to be forced.
but that's just my opinion on the matter.
Squirtle never said that it didn’t want to evolve and they easily could have evolved it, but the only reason they didn’t evolve it was because Gary was still present and Blastoise was his ace, so that is the only reason Ash’s Squirtle never evolved. They could easily bring Squirtle back and fully evolve it now if they choose. This series would be the perfect opportunity for them to do it.
I will say this, I've never considered Gary's Blastoise an obstacle towards Squirtle evolving, mostly because we never knew what his starter was until the end of freaking jouto (some believed they took the Yellow route due to him using an eevee against Ash after the OI, but it was proven wrong), and him shifting his path from trainer to researcher after pretty much using it against Ash 1 time, opposed to where people like Paul, Trip, and Bianca who were running around with starter evolutions at a much earlier time frame thereby impacting Ash's ones.